Greenlit Trouble
by HistyIsPissty
Summary: Oh look, Vert ended up with a younger brother. I wonder how many girls this one will add to his harem. Wait... what is he doing with that Philosopher's Stone? And is that a Gravity Gun he's holding? Why is he constructing additional Pylons? No! Stop! Stay away from those Fusion Cannons! It seems life in Leanbox is about get a whole lot more troublesome.
1. An Explosive First Impression

**Ch 1: An Explosive First Impression**

"Lady Vert! We have an emergency!"

The peaceful afternoon in Leanbox's Basilicom came to a rather abrupt end when one of the guards came crashing into Vert's office. Judging from his look, it almost seemed as if the very hounds of hell had been hot on his heels. Either that or an extremely annoyed Iris Heart. Whichever sounded more terrifying really.

Whatever the case was, the guard halted in front of Vert's large work desk as he bent down to catch his breath. After taking in enough oxygen to remember why he was panicking in the first place, the green-robed figure looked up again to face his boss.

"Lady Vert! There's a situation outside and you need to-"

The guard's words caught in his throat as he fully took in the sight before him. Half-hidden behind the enormous stacks of paperwork was the still visage of Vert sitting behind the desk with an oddly frozen smile on her face. Sensing that something was off about this picture, the guard took a closer look and saw that the goddess was looking a lot _flatter_ than usual. And not in the way that Blanc was either.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

The guard gave a facepalm as he realized that he was staring at a cardboard cut-out of the goddess. It was obvious that Vert had placed it there to fool anyone who glanced into her office into thinking that she was still busy working while she was off elsewhere.

"And I thought Lady Neptune was supposed to be the weird lazy one," the guard muttered as he lowered his hand and exited the office. Being no stranger to Vert's antics, the green-robed figure quickly changed course towards the CPU's private quarters.

Once he arrived however, he came across a new problem. Much to the guard's disbelief, he found an enormous steel door the size of a pickup truck blocking his path.

"Oh, come on! I know _4 Goddesses Online 2_ just released a new expansion today but this is just ridiculous!"

As it was, Vert had apparently decided to take hefty precautions to avoid being interrupted while she focused on her gaming duties. From the looks of things, she had made sure that even Chika would not be able to drag her out of her room this time by replacing her door with a steel monstrosity that would have put most high-security bank vaults to shame.

Ironically enough, the Oracle was currently busy elsewhere at the moment and in no position to be nagging her "darling sister" about her work. Instead, it was the poor guard who was left facing this unyielding obstacle as he desperately tried to figure out a way to relay his important message. As if to add to his growing anxiety, an enormous explosion from outside suddenly rocked the entire Basilicom.

"Maybe she'll come out to investigate that," the guard said hopefully as he stared at the metal door. After a few seconds passed with nothing happening however, he let out a loud groan. "Oh, who am I kidding? She'd continue playing her game even if the entire Basilicom was on fire." He shuddered as he recalled the disastrous incident last year when this had actually happened. The Leanbox Fire Department had not been too happy with Vert since that major mess-up.

Seeing no other option, the guard went over to the control panel next to the door to see if he could get lucky and guess the password. Much to his surprise however, the panel suddenly spoke up as he neared it.

" _What is the reason for your visit today?"_ the console asked in a robotic female voice that the guard swore he heard from a video game somewhere before.

"Um... I need to notify Lady Vert of a... situation," the guard replied, stopping briefly to figure out the best way to describe the bizarre events unfolding outside.

After a brief pause, the robotic voice spoke up again.

" _Is Gamindustri in any immediate danger?"_

The guard hesitated a bit before answering. "Well... no. Not really. But-"

" _Is Leanbox in any immediate danger?"_

Again the guard paused. "I wouldn't really say it's in any danger but-"

" _Has Nepgear arrived to pledge herself as Vert's younger sister?"_

The guard could not help but sweatdrop at this. "I highly doubt that's ever going to happen. But in all seriousness, the situation outside does have something to do with Lady Vert's-"

" _Has Neptune, Noire, and/or Blanc arrived to pledge their undying love for Vert and ask for her hand in marriage?"_

"What?! No!" the guard yelled out as his face turned bright red. "W... W... Why would that ever happen?" He paused to give an embarrassed cough before continuing to speak. "Not that I'd mind seeing something like that actually happen, of course. Having my Lady Vert harem fic become a reality would be totally awesome."

" _That was a joke. Ha ha. Fat chance."_

The guard slumped over in disappointment while the robotic voice spoke up once more.

" _Calculating all given answers to determine security override access... Calculating... Calculating... Calculations complete."_ The guard looked up again as he stared expectantly at the talking control panel. _"With the given emergency level, your access has been... DENIED."_

As it said this a pair of automated Gatling turrets popped out of the ceiling and pointed themselves menacingly at the terrified guard.

" _Please accept these complimentary bullets as your consolation prize. In the highly unlikely event that you survive, please remind Chika that I am programmed to flood the air vents with deadly neurotoxin if she tries to sneak in through them. Now then... Have a nice day."_

Luckily for the guard, another explosion shook the building right before the turrets opened fire causing them to botch their aim. The first volley of bullets narrowly missed the guard by a few sparse centimeters as he instantly took this opportunity to book it out of there.

"That's it, I'm moving to Planeptune!" the guard screamed out in a shrill voice. "Even Lady Neptune makes more sense than this madhouse!"

The sound of another explosion and turret fire echoed behind him as if to confirm his thoughts.

* * *

Meanwhile in Vert's room, the goddess was ignorant of all the commotion outside as she focused on leveling her MMO character. The numerous explosions that shook even her heavily fortified room did nothing to interrupt her single-minded focus on her game.

Though it was hard to tell at the moment, Vert was actually in an extremely good mood. The last several weeks had been like a personal heaven for her as everything seemed to go her way. Her favorite game had just received an enormous expansion, Leanbox's shares were at a record high thanks to the hugely successful launch of their new gaming PCs, and to top it all off she had even won six different lotteries - four of which she had not even entered in! It was as if fate itself had suddenly decided to dance to Vert's own little tune.

Of course, the CPU was not foolish enough to believe that such good fortune would last forever. All the time she had spent around Noire had left her all too aware of just how fickle luck really was. One moment you could be enjoying your recent success at a console launch event and the next you could find yourself squashed underneath a certain purple-haired tinkerer who just so happened to fall directly on top of you after a teleporter malfunction.

Not that Vert would have minded having a cute purple-haired tinkerer fall on her but that was beside the point.

The fact was, Vert was at least somewhat prepared for her good-luck streak to derail itself in some terribly horrific manner in the near future but at the moment she was too busy enjoying her game to worry about it too much.

"Oh my! Three epic rarity items from a basic dungeon chest? This is truly my lucky day!" Vert nearly did a little jig in her chair as she smiled happily at her loot.

Another explosion rocked the room but Vert paid no more attention to it than she did to the last several dozen as she moved her character to pick up her next quest.

"Gather 8 Holy Pineapples from the Field of Sanctity," Vert read aloud. "Ah, this must be the start of the quest that leads to the first raid dungeon. If I recall correctly, I'll have to eventually locate a prince who's hunted by the Blight Witch and help him reclaim his kingdom."

After pausing to take a drink from her bottle of Mountain Dew, she entertained a rather amusing thought.

"Imagine if I can get my own spin-off game with an adventure like that! Escorting a handsome prince, defeating an evil witch, becoming the greatest hero of the Southern Kingdom... perhaps even acquiring my own younger sister along the way! Oh, that would truly be a dream come true!"

The words had hardly left her mouth before the biggest explosion yet rocked the building violently. This finally alerted Vert to the fact that something was wrong as she put down her drink and got up in alarm. Her surprise only doubled however when she turned around and found the space behind her suddenly warping as if an invisible portal was forming in the middle of her room.

"Oh my-! Is this one of those legendary plot portals that Neptune always runs across?! Am I actually going to be sucked into a grand and mystical adventure?!"

Vert's excited ramblings came to an abrupt halt as the portal suddenly flashed with a bright green light. Rather than drawing her in however, the portal spat out a small disheveled figure onto her carpeted floor instead before disappearing entirely.

"Ow..." the figure muttered in a muffled male voice as he remained lying on the floor. "That hurt way worse than I expected. Note to self: Remember to construct additional barriers before attempting an emergency warp."

With that, the stranger slowly got up to reveal himself as a blond haired young boy. After brushing aside the disheveled bangs that covered his blue eyes, he immediately spotted the gaping CPU staring at him and gave a wide smile.

"Hi there!" he greeted cheerfully as if popping out of strange portals was the most normal thing in the world for him. "Sorry about barging in here like this. I must have messed up my warp coordinates when I got blown up just now. If you don't mind me asking, who are you and where exactly is this place?"

Now, Vert was hardly the type to falter after witnessing such a strange event. Her many years of hanging around a pudding-powered meme machine, a tsundere cosplayer, and a rageaholic amateur writer had left her far too jaded to be bothered by most nonsensical shenanigans. However, the fact that this newcomer had just appeared right when she had wished for her own magical adventure left her fumbling as her idealistic side and logical side raged inside of her.

 _He has to be some kind of lost prince from another dimension! He must be here to seek out my help to reclaim his kingdom!_

 _Oh please. He's just a kid. Judging from his looks, he's probably even an year or so younger than Nepgear. The most likely scenario is that he's from that local mage school near the Basilicom. He most likely just messed up his teleportation spell during some kind of wizard duel or something._

As her inner personas continued to argue, Vert realized that the boy was still waiting for an answer to his question. Putting her mental dilemma on hold for the time being, she faced the kid with a small smile of her own.

"My name is Vert," she said in a perfectly calm and professional voice. If there was one good thing that came out of all those boring dinner parties that Chika had forced her to host, it was the skill of being able to give out formal introductions without any conscious effort. "I'm the CPU of Leanbox and this is my Basilicom."

Hearing this, the boy's smile suddenly seem to widen as he let out a small cheer. "Yes! I did it! I knew I could find you by myself!"

 _See?_ Vert's idealist persona shot out. _That proves it! He's a young prince that was looking for me to help him in his quest!_

Vert's logical side let out a mental sigh. _How does any of this prove that he's a prince? For all we know, he could just be a generic NPC quest-giver._

Even as she said (thought?) this, logical Vert quickly realized that her statement was highly unlikely. For one, the boy was much too detailed to be just another faceless side-character. His distinctive blue eyes and light blond hair already proved that he was much more than a simple silhouette. In fact, his overall looks stuck out as being strangely familiar to her although she could not put her finger on exactly why.

 _Hey, doesn't he remind you of someone?_ Vert's logical side asked.

 _Oh, stop trying to change the subject,_ the idealistic side replied in a smug tone. _You just don't want to admit that he's an important character who's going to serve an integral role in our new adventure. Honestly, just look at the clothes he's wearing if you're still in denial. How can anyone with a unique outfit like that be a standard villager?_

As much as she was loathe to, logical Vert had to admit that the boy's clothes were definitely eye-catching. The most notable part of it was obviously the over-sized green coat that he was wearing. It seemed similar enough to IF's usual attire but his version seemed to flare out a bit more near the bottom, making it seem as if he was wearing a cape or cloak. As if to contrast the eccentricity of his flashy coat, a simple white shirt and black pants were worn underneath it. The return to normality ended there however as Vert looked down and saw a pair of strange, mechanized boots lined in green and white that vaguely reminded her of her own processor unit. As the boy moved his arm slightly, Vert also noticed an unusual cylindrical bulge beneath his right sleeve as if the boy was wearing some kind of large bracer on his arm.

Suffice to say, the boy's outfit was clearly beyond that of a normal, everyday NPC.

"So..." the boy eventually said, seemingly ignoring the fact that Vert was ogling him. "What now?"

Before Vert could say anything though, a loud explosion suddenly resounded in close proximity to the CPU's room.

"Wow. That's some serious tenacity she's got," the boy muttered as the shaking finally stopped. "I can't believe she's still chasing after me."

Finally remembering all the explosions she had felt before, Vert faced the boy with a questioning look. "Did all those explosions from earlier have something to do with the person chasing you?"

The boy gave a nod while wearing a strangely amused grin. "Yup. This crazy lady has been trying to kill me since she learned about my identity. Thankfully, she's been rather unsuccessful in her murder attempts other than that lucky shot right before I ended up here. I will give her points for the amount of bloodlust and killer intent she gave off though. She seriously reminded me of those Demon Lords and Blight Witches I've read about."

Inside Vert's head, her idealist persona started doing a merry jig.

 _He's a prince! There's a Blight Witch! I'm the main character! Woohoo!_

 _Okay, I'm out!_ the logical persona yelled out as she threw up her arms in exasperation. _If you're just going to ignore everything I say, then I'm clearly not needed here! You can deal with your delusional little fantasy on your own!_

The sound of a door slamming shut was heard inside Vert's mind as her mental argument finally came to a close.

"I think she's getting closer," the boy said in a casual tone as an explosion sounded off again.

"Don't worry," Vert reassured with a smile. "My automated defenses will probably keep her out. Even if she somehow gets through, I'll be sure to protect you." She summoned her spear as she said this and gave it an impressive twirl.

The boy tilted his head a bit as he stared at Vert with an almost calculating look. A few seconds later though, his smile returned as he gave her an understanding nod.

"Okay. I'll trust you."

His earnest tone along with the bright smile he gave her caused Vert to blush a little as she stood protectively before her new charge.

All too soon, the chain of explosions reached Vert's room. With her focus on the door, Vert managed to hear her turrets firing at the intruder this time. However, the attack apparently did nothing against the mystery villain as a pair of explosions signaled the destruction of the turrets.

A few seconds passed in tense silence before another explosion went off, this time aimed at the steel door. Vert tightened her grip on her spear as she started to feel a growing sense of apprehension as more and more explosion barraged itself against the slowly deteriorating defense. Even without her logical side, Vert knew that she was practically fated to lose against this enemy. Her years of gaming had taught her that the first battle against the main villain always resulted in a forced loss. The best she could hope for was to protect the boy long enough for a deus ex machina portal to appear and rescue them both.

As the door began to give way underneath the relentless assault, Vert looked back and gave the supposed prince a reassuring look. The boy responded with a confident expression as if he trusted her wholeheartedly and gave a short nod. With a renewed sense of determination, Vert turned back towards the door and prepared herself.

With an earth-shattering blast, the steel door was finally blasted off its hinges as the entire entrance way exploded into a raging inferno.

Reacting quickly, Vert used her spear to swat aside the flaming wreckage of the door that flew towards her. Unfortunately, this resulted in the large slab of metal landing directly on her collection of naked butler figures instead and smashing them to bits. If the situation had not been so dire, Vert might have collapsed to her knees and cried out in despair right then and there.

As it was however, she had little time to lament her terrible loss as a sinister aura suddenly pervaded the devastated room. Although the debris cloud and flames made it hard to tell, Vert thought she could see a tall female figure with glowing red eyes standing amidst the chaos and destruction. Knowing that the battle was now at hand, Vert took a deep breath and took one final glance back at the boy.

"No matter what happens, I promise I'll protect you."

Without waiting for a response, Vert focused back on her enemy and bravely charged forward...

…only to immediately freeze as the sinister figure spoke up.

"Where is he?! I can smell his blasphemy coming from here!"

Vert could not help her mouth from opening in surprise as she recognized the voice.

"Chika?!" the CPU shouted out in shock as she lowered her spear.

As she said this, the menacing figure stepped out of the dust cloud to reveal the green-haired figure of Leanbox's Oracle. For some unfathomable reason, Chika was carrying an enormous rocket launcher that would have made even B-Sha jealous. Realizing that this was the weapon responsible for all of the explosions that day, Vert looked at her Oracle with the most befuddled expression a goddess could make.

"What-? Rocket launcher-? Why-?"

Instead of answering, Chika merely looked back at her pseudo-sister with a confused look of her own.

"Vert darling? What are you doing here?"

A few seconds of awkward silence passed before Vert's mind recovered enough to form an answer.

"This is my room," she replied rather mechanically.

Chika suddenly let out a shocked gasp as she looked around the demolished room as if she was just now recognizing it.

"Oh my-! I'm so sorry dear sister!" the Oracle cried out as she suddenly fell to her knees. "I didn't realize this was your room with that steel door in place! Plus, I wasn't thinking properly because I was too focused on killing that lying heathen! Even so, that's no excuse for what I've done! Please forgive me!"

"Lying heathen?" Vert asked, being far too distracted to properly respond to Chika's torrent of apologies. "What are you talking about?"

Biting back her big dramatic sobs, Chika got up to answer the question. "There was this little brat today who dared to say that he was your-" Chika's face suddenly turned demonic again as she spotted the boy who was still standing behind Vert. "YOU! PREPARE TO BE EVISCERATED!"

"Hold it!" Vert shouted out as she put herself between her clearly unhinged Oracle and the surprisingly calm looking boy. "What exactly is going on between you two?"

While the CPU's voice seemed to calm down Chika a bit, it was the boy who actually answered her question.

"Ah... I think it might have something to do with my identity."

"Identity?" Vert repeated as she turned back to look at the boy. "Aren't you a prince from another dimension?"

Chika gave her a deadpan expression while the boy just let out a laugh.

"What?" Vert said with an embarrassed shrug. "It made sense in my mind."

After recovering from his brief laughing fit, the boy turned to face Vert with an amused smile. "Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not actually a prince. Still, I suppose that's not too far off from the truth if you consider the current governing system of Gamindustri."

Vert gave him an extremely puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

The boy just gave a dismissive wave of his hand as he answered.

"I'm the CPU Candidate of Leanbox."

Nothing but the sounds of the crackling flames and collapsing furniture could be heard as the room's occupants descended into a state of absolute silence. Two sets of eyes lay on the CPU as they waited with fearful anticipation and mild curiosity respectively. After what felt like an eternity and a half, Vert finally broke the tense atmosphere with a single, rather anticlimactic, word.

"What?"

While Chika was rather surprised by this mild reaction, the boy seemed to understand that this was merely the precursor to a major mental breakdown. Realizing that he had a few sparse seconds to complete his introduction before things quickly descended into absolute chaos, he gave a polite little bow towards the two frozen women and continued speaking.

"My name is Sync. As I alluded to earlier, I was formed from Leanbox's Sharicite and thus the CPU Candidate of this nation. Despite our little misunderstanding earlier, I'm pleased to meet you both. I do hope we can avoid any further assassination attempts in the future and get along."

Neither Vert nor Chika seemed to know how to respond to this rather sincere sounding introduction as they simply looked on speechlessly. Sync however seemed to recall something rather amusing as he lifted his head with a smile.

"Ah, that's right. I suppose I don't really have to worry even if someone does try to kill me again." With a mischievous grin that would have made the Cheshire Cat proud, he turned to face the dumbstruck goddess. "After all, you did promise to protect me no matter what happened... sis."

The sound of Vert's sanity snapping could be heard all way from Lowee.

" _ **WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!**_ "


	2. The Office

**Ch 2: The Office**

Within the medieval castle-themed council chamber of Vert's mental landscape, a fierce debate was raging between her various different personas.

" _No, I refuse to believe it!"_ the main personality yelled out to her crowd of doppelgangers. " _There's no way that kid can be the CPU Candidate!"_

The logical Vert wearing glasses gave a loud sigh in response. " _Ugh. I leave you guys alone for a couple of minutes and we end up in a situation like this. I told you from the beginning that there was something off about the kid. Of course, one of us just **had**_ _to encourage all of this stupidity instead."_

" _Hey! I was just caught up in the moment, okay?"_ the idealistic Vert with sparkling eyes shot back. " _How was I supposed to know he was a CPU Candidate?"_

" _Noooo!"_ the main Vert screamed while covering her ears. _"He's not the CPU Candidate! He's not! He's not! He's not!"_

For a moment, the various Verts remained silent as they just stared at their main personality with a deadpan expression.

" _Why did we elect her to be the one in charge again?"_ a bored-looking Vert asked rhetorically.

Idealistic Vert chose to answer anyways. _"Because she was our second-most dominant personality. Our only other option would have been to choose... her."_

The multitude of Verts simultaneously turned to face the corner where one of their numbers was currently focused on a rather erotic Nepgear doujinshi. A small nosebleed could be seen on her face as she giggled perversely at her questionable reading material.

" _Yeah... why don't we just get back to the matter at hand?"_ logical Vert said with an embarrassed cough. _"We still need to figure out what do with the boy."_

" _What's there to think about?"_ the hooded figure of Vert's dark side answered. _"We kill the boy, chop up the body, and throw it in a nearby bog."_

All of the other Verts cringed at the suggestion.

" _T...T...That sounds... rather extreme,"_ a shy sounding Vert said while nervously twiddling her fingers.

" _No kidding,"_ idealistic Vert said with a grimace. _"That honestly sounds like something Chika or Plutia would do if they ever had a bad day."_

The room fell silent again as the multitude of Verts tried to figure out a less violent solution to their problem.

After a while, logical Vert cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. _"Ahem. Has anyone considered the fact that the boy might simply be lying?"_

" _Why would he do that?"_ the main Vert personality asked, finally getting over her shell-shock.

Logical Vert adjusted her glasses before speaking. _"Any number of reasons really. Perhaps he's a spy trying to infiltrate the Basilicom. Or maybe he's just an overzealous fanboy trying to get closer to our underwear drawer. The point is, we should try to confirm his claims before we do anything too drastic."_

After thinking about it for a moment, most of the Verts seemed to agree that scoping out the situation a bit further was not a bad idea.

" _Okay, it's decided then,"_ main Vert announced. _"Our primary objective for now will be to-"_

" _Visit Neptune and buy her a bunch of pudding!"_ a mental image of Neptune suddenly shouted out as she sprung up out of who-knows-where.

" _What the-? Neptune! What are you doing inside my head?!"_

" _Oh, I just felt a plot developing so I rushed on over to see what was up,"_ Neptune explained with a bright smile. " _So what's going on Vert? Did you meet a new character or something? Do you need my help as a main character for your epic-adventure-in-the-making?"_

" _There is no adventure and this has nothing to do with you Neptune,"_ the main Vert said as she resisted the urge to face-palm. " _Now would you be so kind as to leave my head? This is a very serious breach of privacy."_

Neptune seemed to ignore the onslaught of hostile gazes that the other Verts were giving her as she put on a disappointed expression.

" _Aww... no need to be such a party-pooper Vert! Even Blanc needed my help with being a main character, you know. There's no shame in asking me for help with being a protagonist. I mean, I know you're still mad that your supposed spin-off game has my name in the title instead of yours but-"_

" _OUT!"_ all of the Verts shouted in unison.

" _Okay, okay! Sheesh, it looks like someone forgot to eat their daily serving of pudding today."_

Still mumbling something about pudding being the ultimate source of happiness and love in the world, Neptune departed from Vert's mind.

" _... ... ..."_

" _Well..."_ main Vert eventually said to break the awkward silence that had formed. _"I guess I'll head out to question the boy then."_

Logical Vert gave her a short nod. _"Do try to keep a calm head. Chika's definitely going to be there as well so try to prevent her from putting on a repeat performance of the infamous 'Vert Fan-club Massacre' from two years ago."_

All of the gathered Vert's gave a collective shudder at this (even the per-Vert in the corner).

" _So... much... blood,"_ the shy Vert whispered out in horror as idealistic Vert gave her a few calming pats on the back.

Logical Vert adjusted her glasses before speaking up again. _"In the worst case scenario, try to contact Histoire. I'm sure she'll be able sort everything out with her knowledge of share energy."_

Main Vert gave a nod as the mental landscape around them began to slowly fade away. _"Any other last-minute tips before I go?"_

Logical Vert seemed to think for a second before giving a grin that bore a striking amount of resemblance to the one the boy had previously given them.

" _Take a deep breath as soon as you get up. You'll need it."_

* * *

When Vert regained consciousness, she found herself lying on a soft surface with a massive headache pounding through her skull.

 _Ooooh... my head,_ Vert groggily thought as she physically let out a groan. _Hmm... I wonder what my logical side meant by taking a deep breath?_

Her question was immediately answered when a familiar voice suddenly shouted out from right next to her.

"Vert darling! You're finally awake!"

 _Oh no..._

Before Vert could do anything, she felt her head being dragged up and squashed right into a pair of large bouncy melons.

"Mmmph! ...Chika!" Vert yelled out as she tried to free herself from her Oracle's boobs. Though Chika's chest was not as bountiful as her own, it was still sufficiently big enough to cause her to nearly suffocate. "Let me... Mmmmmmmph! ...go!"

Chika seemed ignorant of her pleas as she continued to ironically subject her 'sister' to the dreaded marshmallow treatment. Just when Vert thought she could see her life flashing before her eyes (it honestly looked like a giant Yaoi compilation clip with bits and pieces of Nepgear scattered throughout), a voice from the side suddenly spoke up.

"You might want to let her get some air," the nonchalant male voice said. "Judging from her face, I think her official title might change to Blue Heart pretty soon."

Vert immediately felt the grip around her head loosen as Chika turned to growl at the speaker like some kind of rabid Dogoo.

"You keep out of this, you little brat!" Chika yelled out, looking positively murderous.

Vert used this opportunity to gently push herself away from her Oracle and take a couple of deep breaths. Vowing to have a word with her logical persona about properly warning people next time, the CPU straightened up to see where exactly she had ended up in.

Much to her relief, she saw that she was simply inside her own office. Seeing as how the place seemed to be in one piece, Vert guessed that Chika had been too busy worrying about her to continue her rampage. Glad that at least something was going her way today, she continued her investigation and saw that she was sitting on one of the pair of velvet sofas that she usually reserved for having tea with her guests.

Before she could take in anything else however, she noticed Chika tensing up next to her as if preparing to lunge towards the unseen third figure. Deciding that keeping her Oracle under control was her top priority at the moment, Vert quickly shot out a question to divert her attention.

"Chika, how exactly did I end up here?"

This thankfully did the job as the bloodlust in Chika's eyes suddenly drained away.

"Oh! I carried you here all by myself darling!" the Oracle proudly remarked as she faced Vert with a large smile. The sudden shift from killer intent to innocent happiness was frankly quite disturbing, even to the jaded CPU.

"Right..." Vert let out as she tried to keep her uneasiness from showing. "Anyways, what about the fire in my room?"

"The workers came in to deal with it while I moved you here," Chika waved off. "As for me, I've been busy taking care of you this whole time."

At this remark, Vert instinctively looked down to make sure all of her clothes were still in their proper places. As much as she trusted Chika to take care of her physical well-being, she did not put it past her Oracle to try and commit grand theft underwear again while she had been incapacitated. Celestia knows the countless number of times she had woken up to find Chika trying to unhook her bra or slide off her panties.

"She didn't steal any of your undergarments," the carefree voice spoke up again, as if responding to Vert's searching gaze down at herself. "She did make several attempts but I interrupted her every time she got too close."

"I knew that coughing fit of yours was too well-timed!" Chika angrily yelled out.

Vert just facepalmed at this while giving an enormous sigh.

After a tense couple of seconds, Vert decided that there was no point in delaying the inevitable and chose to finally acknowledge her main problem. After muttering a silent prayer to her patron deity (RNGesus), Vert slowly lowered her hand and faced the source of all of her current troubles.

Remarkably enough, the boy in the large green coat was not up to anything crazy at the moment as he seemed to be simply admiring the various energy swords in the glass display case near her desk.

"You there... um..." Vert trailed off as she realized that she had forgotten what his name was.

"Sync," he cheerfully reminded her without even glancing back.

"Right. Sync, I have a lot of important matters to discuss with you so could please take a seat?"

Sync gave one final glance towards the energy sword collection before turning around to face her. Now that she had a proper idea of who he was (or who he claimed to be at least), Vert could see that he did in fact share a close resemblance to her. His hair and eye color were the exact same shade as her own and his face structure definitely bore a familial similarity. Of course, there was always the chance that he had simply dyed his hair, put on colored contact lenses, and had his face changed by a skilled plastic surgeon but Vert sadly got the feeling that this was not the case.

As he began heading towards the pair of sofas though, Sync happened to catch sight of the large cardboard cut-out of Vert sitting behind the desk. A large grin suddenly appeared on his face as he began to look between the CPU and her cardboard counterpart.

"So," he began in an overly-innocent tone, "do you just keep this thing around for all the _board_ meeting you have? Or do you use it to keep yourself from becoming _bored_ when you're in here alone?"

Vert felt her left eye twitch at the puns. Next to her, Chika began to make feral animal noises towards the boy.

"Sit. Now."

With his grin still in place, Sync obeyed Vert's order and walked over to the sofa facing the two women.

"Well then," he began conversationally as he sat down. "What did you want to talk to me about sis?"

"Don't call me that," Vert immediately replied while automatically putting a restraining hand on Chika's shoulder. After waiting for her Oracle to calm down, the CPU put on the sternest look she could manage and went straight to the heart of the matter.

"Do you have any evidence to support your claim of being the CPU Candidate?"

Sync's smile hardly wavered as he looked at Vert with a bemused expression.

"Check the Leanbox Sharicite," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'm sure you can sense my presence in it."

Looking rather miffed about having her question so easily cast aside, Vert reluctantly focused on her main share crystal. As much as she hated to admit it, the boy was correct in assuming that this was the most credible way of checking if someone was a CPU Candidate or not. Seeing as how the Sharicite was one of the most heavily guarded objects in Leanbox, it would have been impossible for anyone to sneak in and tamper with the crystal. Plus, she was directly connected to it at all times so she would have immediately noticed if someone had tried to forge a fake link with it.

"Well?" Chika asked rather impatiently after Vert remained silent for a good minute. "Do you sense anything darling?"

The CPU remained silent as a look of confusion slowly fell across her face. After another minute or so, she looked up to face Sync with a puzzled expression.

"What is this?" she asked. "I can definitely feel something connected to the crystal but I can't get a good read on it."

A playful smile appeared on Sync's face as he answered. "Maybe the Sharicite and I are just not in _sync_ yet."

Vert let out a tired groan as she buried her face with one hand while holding back Chika with the other.

"One more pun and I really will set Chika loose on you," Vert muttered darkly as the Oracle struggled to reach the boy's throat.

Though she could not see it, Sync just gave her an amused smile.

A few minutes later, Vert recovered from her pun-induced trauma and faced the supposed CPU Candidate with a serious expression.

"Unfortunately, I can't confirm if you really are connected to the Sharicite or not. For all I know, that weird anomaly I sensed from the crystal is simply a result of our sudden increase in shares. As such, I cannot accept this as evidence for your claim." Vert knew that she was simply being stubborn in her denial but she was desperate enough to take advantage of even the smallest discrepancies.

Before Sync could offer a counter-argument though, Chika suddenly spoke up.

"Ha! I knew you were nothing but a dirty liar!" she declared triumphantly while pointing dramatically at the boy. "Now stop wasting my darling sister's time and get out of here!"

Rather than looking offended, Sync spent the next couple of seconds giving her a calculating look as if trying to figure something out. Just when Chika was about to yell at him to stop staring at her, he turned to face Vert with a questioning look.

"Can you clarify something for me?" he asked with the barest hint of a smile on his face. "I know it's probably just personal preference but why do you keep around a Yandere Blight Witch as your mistress?"

It was hard to say whether Vert or Chika looked more dumbfounded at this question. Vert began to continuously open and close her mouth like a goldfish while her left eye began twitching again. Chika on the other hand turned bright red and started fidgeting uncomfortably as her imagination no doubt ran haywire at the mention of being Vert's mistress.

Sync however, did not seem to be done yet as he took in their shocked reactions with a large mischievous grin.

"Sheesh, you two really need to learn to hide your surprise better," he remarked with a large theatrical shrug. "The whole world's going to find out about this scandalous relationship at this rate. Given what the Blight Witch keeps saying, people might even assume that you two have some kind of weird sibling role-playing fetish going on as well."

This finally did the trick in snapping Chika's last remaining thread of sanity.

"DIE YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

With steam literally rising out of her head (though whether this was from anger or embarrassment was hard to tell), Chika summoned her spear from her inventory and threw it directly towards Sync.

Time seemed to slow as the spear flew on a direct course toward the boy's head. Vert tried to reach forward and grab the weapon but she knew that she was too late to stop it. Just as she resigned herself to the fact that her office was about to become the site of Chika's latest bloodbath, Sync casually made a slight waving motion with his right hand.

Almost immediately, a small distortion seemed to form in the space between Sync and the spear. As Vert watched with wide eyes, the spear flew straight into the strange portal-like shimmer in the air before disappearing completely.

Just as she was about question where the spear had gone, a loud thud resounded from behind her desk. Turning her head, Vert was completely astonished to find that Chika's weapon had somehow ended up impaling the cardboard cut-out of her instead.

"NOOOOOO!" With an anguished cry, Chika ran over to clutch the destroyed cut-out with a waterfall of tears suddenly streaming down her face. "Darling! You can't leave me like this! I was going to take you to my room later!"

Off to the side, Sync looked a little sheepish at where the spear had ended up as well.

"Whoops. I guess I still need to work on establishing a proper exit point. Still, at least none of us ended up turning into a kebab."

While Chika continued to cry loudly in the background, Vert turned to face Sync with a thoroughly perplexed expression.

"How did you do that?" she asked, completely forgetting about the verbal prank he had pulled earlier.

Sync gave a nonchalant shrug to this. "I can control space. Teleportation, telekinesis, energy displacement – just about anything that deals with moving any form of matter from one location to the next. It's how I was able to avoid all of those rockets before coming here. Of course, I'm still in the middle of getting the hang of it all so I usually end up messing up my warp coordinates like you just saw." He paused to think for a bit before continuing. "I've also been looking into dimensional warping but I'll probably need a tutor to accomplish something that advanced. You wouldn't happen to know anyone who specializes in that field, do you?"

Vert made a mental note to keep the kid as far away from Big Neptune and Croire as possible while quickly shaking her head.

"So let me get this straight," she reiterated after a brief pause. "You have the power to teleport anything to anywhere as long as they exist within this dimension?"

Sync seemed oddly amused at her question. "Please. I'm not _that_ overpowered," he answered with a smile. "I can only manipulate the space around me within a set radius. If I try to warp anything further than that, then my control and speed slips up drastically. Kind of like how I ended up in your room by accident when I tried to get away from Chika earlier. (Vert winced a bit at being reminded of that awkward first meeting.) Anyways, as long as something happens to be within my warp zone, I can easily sense it's spatial location and manipulate it even without having to see it. For example..."

With a rather mischievous grin on his face, Sync waved his hand again.

Strangely enough, nothing seemed to occur following his motion. A few seconds later, however, the air above Vert's desk suddenly seemed to distort.

All eyes converged onto the desk as a pair of lacy green underwear suddenly floated down on top of it. Vert felt her face turning hotter than the surface of the sun as the sudden breeziness between her legs made it clear just who this underwear belonged to. Unfortunately for her, the predatory gleam in Chika's eyes indicated that the Oracle had recognized this specific pair of panties as well.

After a tense second, the two women simultaneously dived forward at speeds that could have made even Planeptune's mascot envious.

"NO! BAD CHIKA! BAD! STAY AWAY FROM MY UNDERWEAR!"

As the two green blurs clashed to vie for control of the undergarment, Sync casually pulled out a bucket of popcorn from his inventory and leaned back to enjoy the show.

* * *

An hour and a half later, the trio was back on the pair of sofas once more.

In the end, Vert had been able to recover her underwear and had momentarily stepped out to put it back on. Chika had settled for hugging a body pillow of Vert that she had pulled out of her inventory with an extremely disappointed look on her face. As for the office itself... well, a giant radioactive lizard trying to do the Macarena inside of it would have probably done less damage to the poor room than the disaster it had just gone through.

Throughout all of this wanton devastation, Sync had simply sat on the sofa and finished off his popcorn. He had, of course, used his powers to make sure that the flurry of destruction did not reach the area surrounding him but other than that he had simply played observer throughout the entire debacle.

Now that things had settled down, Vert was free to pinpoint the exact cause of all of this trouble. If looks could kill, then Sync would have probably died ten times over from the glare that she sent his way. In a sense, it was rather remarkable how he had been able to make the normally serene CPU show this much anger when Neptune had failed to do so even after annoying her for a countless number of years. Of course, this was hardly an achievement worth bragging about as Vert looked just about ready to take her own shot at eviscerating the boy.

"You..." Vert began with an ominous growl. "I'm going to-"

She was suddenly cut off when the sound of Nepgear's theme from _Victory_ began to play from her inventory. Realizing that her phone was ringing, Vert angrily summoned it to her hand and answered it.

"Vert speaking," the CPU answered, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

" _Ah, good afternoon Vert. This is Histoire."_

Vert immediately felt her anger melting away upon hearing the Oracle's voice.

 _This is perfect!_ Vert's idealistic persona shouted out joyfully from within her mind. _We'll just get Histoire to confirm that the boy isn't the real CPU Candidate! After that, we can just kick him out of our lives!_

 _What if it turns out that he's been telling the truth?_ the logical side asked.

 _Oh, come on. Even our luck's not that bad,_ idealistic Vert waved off.

Logical Vert scoffed at this but otherwise remained silent.

With her minor debate concluded, Vert returned her attention to her phone call.

"You called at exactly the right time Histoire," Vert quickly said. "I have a-"

The rest of her words were suddenly drowned out by the sound of several large explosions going off from Histoire's end of the call.

"What the-? Is there something going on in Planeptune?" Vert immediately asked, a hint of worry entering her voice.

" _Its nothing,"_ Histoire dismissed with a tired sigh. _"Nepgear just created another Nepgeardam and it has been terrorizing the city since this morning."_

" _I'm sorry!"_ Nepgear's voice called out from the background. _"I thought I fixed all the bugs in the AI program!"_

" _If you have time to apologize, then go back to helping your sister take down that robot before Planeptune is turned into a smoking crater!"_ Histoire yelled back, obviously at her wits end.

Vert could only sweatdrop as Nepgear continued to apologize profusely before her voice eventually faded off into the distance.

"Well... um..." Vert eventually said, trying to get back on track. "I... uh... have a bit of problem here as well. There's someone here claiming to be the CPU Candidate of Leanbox and-"

" _Oh, has she safely arrived then?"_

Somewhere within the CPU's mind, her idealistic side shriveled up and died.

"You... knew about this?" Vert asked after a lengthy silence.

" _Not exactly,"_ Histoire elaborated. " _My sensors simply alerted me to a spontaneous condensation of share energy somewhere within Leanbox so I assumed a new CPU Candidate had been born. I would have normally gone out to personally escort the Candidate to your Basilicom but I've been a bit... preoccupied lately." A_ giant laser cannon was heard going off in the background just as she finished saying that. _"Anyways, I was simply calling to let you know about all of this."_

There was utter silence in both the real world and in Vert's mental landscape for a good long while.

 _Well, I suppose this at least explains why the kid was looking for me by himself,_ the logical part of Vert's mind noted while the rest of her tried to figure out a way to get rid of Sync.

"I...Is there any chance you might have made a mistake?" Vert asked, desperation clear in her voice.

Histoire sounded rather confused by this question. _"Didn't you say that the CPU Candidate has already arrived? How could I be making a mistake? Is there something wrong with the Sharicite connection?"_

Seeing an opening, Vert immediately leaped upon it.

"There's a strange anomaly with the Leanbox Sharicite at the moment. I can sense something connected to it but I can't make heads or tails of it." At the urging of her logical side, Vert decided to add in a suggestion as well. "Maybe this is just a case of a CPU from another dimension ending up here and accidentally linking up with my Sharicite?"

Histoire seemed to think about this for a minute before answering with a sigh. _I suppose_ _stranger things have happened before. Very well then. Come visit me with this supposed CPU Candidate in a couple of days. Hopefully this Nepgeardam crisis will be dealt with by then and-"_

The rest of Histoire's words were drowned out by a loud siren followed by a robotic voice coming from Planeptune's PA system.

" _ **Nuclear launch detected.** "_

The sound of Planeptune's citizens erupting into mass panic was audible even from Vert's end of the phone.

" _NEPGEAR!"_

With that, Histoire abruptly ended the call.

The ruined remains of Vert's office became silent once more as Vert put away her phone. Judging from their looks, both Chika and Sync had managed to hear the entire conversation that had just occurred.

"So... does that mean I can stay here?" Sync eventually asked with a small smile.

For once, Chika did not immediately go for the 'stab them till they're dead' option and instead looked at Vert for an answer.

After what felt like an eternity (eight minutes and forty-two seconds to be exact), Vert gave a sigh big enough to blow away all of the debris surrounding her before looking up to face Sync.

"You can stay for now," she ground out with bitter reluctance. Seeing Chika about to loudly protest to this idea, Vert decided to explain herself further. "It's only until we can go visit Histoire and get this entire mess sorted out. She said she'll have everything under control again in a couple of days so we'll just have to make do until then."

Of course, Vert knew that Nepgear liked to go rather overboard with her projects so it was very likely that her latest robot menace would take quite a bit longer than expected to take down. If that nuclear assault at the end was anything to go by, Planeptune was in for a rough week.

Realizing that she was also facing a rather rough time herself, Vert decided to lay down some ground rules before Sync went completely wild.

"Alright, listen up," she announced as she pinned him down with a stern look. "I don't want to alert the public about a new CPU Candidate before we can confirm everything with Histoire so I want you to stay inside the Basilicom until then. Don't tell anyone about your true identity and don't do anything to attract attention to yourself either."

Sync seemed to think about this for a second before giving a smile and nod.

"Also, don't do anything to annoy Chika while you're here," Vert added as she caught sight of the green-haired woman growling at him from the side. "She's the Oracle of Leanbox and I expect you treat her with the proper amount of respect from now on."

Sync looked between the two women with a thoughtful expression before settling for a playful grin.

"You have a Blight Witch as your Oracle? That's pretty unorthodox."

Vert pinched the bridge of her nose and let out another sigh as she realized that the week was going to be a lot longer than she had originally thought.

"Chika... please put down the meat cleaver."

Yep, this was definitely going to be a long week indeed.


	3. Escape to Planeptune

**Ch 3: Escape to Planeptune**

If there was one piece of good news that Vert received after leaving her demolished office, it was finding out that most of her personal belongings had been saved from the fire in her room. With nothing left to do but wait, Vert had locked herself in the guest room that her workers had relocated all of her stuff in and had busied herself with her MMO once again.

Though it took her a while to push away the thoughts of her recent trouble, she eventually managed to get lost in her game just like usual. As such, the next two days were spent in a power-leveling frenzy as she leveled all eighteen of her characters to the new level cap and began preparing her guild to challenge the first wing of the raid dungeon. She was so sucked into all of this that she hardly noticed Sync's odd bout of inactivity or the fact that Chika was still trying to actively kill him at every chance she got. Even the constant sound of machine-gun fire and the revving of multiple chainsaws outside her room could not distract Vert as she tirelessly proved her title as the most dedicated (obsessive) gamer in all of Gamindustri.

On the evening of the third day, Vert's efforts and planning were finally rewarded as she led her guild to the last chamber of the first wing.

"Whew, good job everyone," Vert told her party members through her headset. "Looks like we finally managed to get past that undead walrus."

" _Ha ha ha! But of course! No foe can stand in the way of my newly buffed Four Dark Devas!"_ the lead Summoner, Tanaka, called out rather dramatically.

A disbelieving scoff sounded across the voice chat in response. _"Oh please. Those over-glorified hamster summons of yours barely did anything other than divert aggro,"_ the guild's top Battle Mage, Kotori, replied sharply. _"My new flame cannon abilities are what carried us through that last chamber."_

"Now, now," Vert said in a calming voice before her guild members could start arguing. "It's thanks to everyone working together that we managed to make it this far. If we continue to keep up our teamwork, I'm sure we can become the first guild to make it through this raid."

The newest recruit who called herself Ruby gave an enthusiastic cheer at this. _"Yeah! We'll show everyone that_ **LeanboxKnights** _is the top guild in the entire server! Those losers in_ **SwordArt** _and_ **LogHorizon** _ain't got nothing on us!"_

As her party joined in on the cheering, Vert could not help but smile.

 _I can't wait to see the look on that pompous Gary-Stu and that glasses-wearing know-it-all when they find out we won the first clear bonus reward,_ she thought with no small amount of glee. _That will teach them to team up against us at the monthly guild wars._

With a renewed sense of determination, Vert called everyone back to order and began reminding everyone of their roles for the upcoming final battle.

"Okay, as you all know, the final boss for this wing is the Blight Witch's Demon Alpaca. The battle plan is the same as before but I've made a few adjustments to make it easier for our current party. Flonne, if you can, try to apply the health-regeneration buff right before we drop the boss to eight bars. That should give us some more breathing room for its long-range acid spit attack afterwards. Rem, use your Demon Frenzy ability to take down the mini alpaca's that spawn at the sixth health bar. They apparently have a massive weakness to ball-and-chain weapons so you should be able to clear them without too much trouble. As for you Ruby, make sure to keep all of your abilities off cooldown before we reach the last phase at three bars. We'll have two minutes to burn down the rest of its health before it unleashes a party wipe attack so we'll be relying on your massive burst potential to kill it before then."

" _Got it,"_ the young girl responded cheerfully as the other party members gave their confirmations as well.

"We'll go in once my mana fully recovers," Vert announced as she moved her Enchanter into place. "I'll send out the damage buff spell when I'm ready. Everyone should get into position and be prepared to move in as soon as I give the signal."

While her party members began moving around, Vert decided to take this time to stretch and let out the yawn she had been holding back. Even though the lack of sleep was starting to catch up with her, she could not help but feel happier than she had in a long while. The excitement of completing a raid for the first time as well as the prospect of rubbing her victory in her rivals' faces made her _almost_ forget about the trouble she had faced several days ago.

Almost, because that specific trouble chose that exact moment to warp into her room.

"Hey sis," Sync casually greeted as he materialized right next to Vert. "What'cha doin'?"

The CPU nearly fell out of her chair in surprise at the boy's sudden appearance.

"Gyaaaaa! Don't scare me like that!" Vert shouted out as she regained her balance. After quickly apologizing to her guild members for nearly deafening them, she muted her headset before turning to glare at Sync.

"What are you doing here?! And why can't you just enter through the door like a normal person?!"

Sync gave a nonchalant shrug as he answered her. "I thought I might as well check in on you to make sure you didn't collapse from sleep deprivation or lack of food. Seems like you're doing fine so that's a relief. As for why I warped in here instead of walking, Chika booby-trapped my room's door with about five hundred pounds of explosives so I've had to use my powers to get around lately."

Vert decided to have a long talk with her Oracle later to remind her about the definition of collateral damage. At the moment however, she had a few questions that needed answering first.

"What have you been up to?" Vert asked suspiciously. "You've been awfully quiet lately."

Sync flashed her a playful smile. "Oh, you know... just building up my Death Fleet, drawing up battle plans to take over the other nations, and printing out multiple marriage forms for all of the other CPUs that I'm going to turn into my harem of lovely trophy wives one day."

Vert simply remained silent as she continued trying burn a hole through him with her gaze.

"Not in the mood for any jokes, I see," Sync said with a hint of disappointment. "Fine. I've been in the library trying to get up to date with current events. I have to say, you and your friends have really been up to quite a lot over the past few years."

Vert had to hold herself back from letting out a sigh of relief. She had been expecting him to be planning some kind of mind-boggling prank on her and Chika but spending time in the library seemed harmless enough. Unfortunately for her, Sync continued to speak.

"I also found a large number of ancient texts that might be interesting to look into further. The one about creating a Philosopher's Stone in particular looked rather promising." Vert could not help but shudder as a cold feeling of dread suddenly came over her at those words. Sync did not seem to notice her discomfort though as he went on talking. "Oh, I also found this rather interesting scroll while looking around. I think it says something about dragons but I had a hard time making out most of it. Maybe you could help me figure it out?"

Before Vert could do anything, he pulled out a large scroll from inside his coat and opened it. The moment she caught glimpse of its contents however, she was immediately blinded by an extremely bright burst of light.

"AHHHHHHHH! MY EYES!"

As Vert flailed about in her chair, Sync quickly closed the scroll with a sheepish look.

"Oh... whoops. Sorry about that," he said sounding sincerely apologetic. "I should have probably warned you about the initial blinding effect. Don't worry though, I'm pretty sure it isn't permanent. You'll probably see a bunch of weird floating runes for a while but those should fade away in time."

"Get out!" Vert screamed as she continued to flail about.

"Are you sure you don't need me to get you some eye-drops or-"

"OUT!"

With a sigh, Sync focused his power to teleport out of the room.

"Well, so much for getting sis to help me figure out what this thing says," he muttered to himself as he looked down at the scroll in his hands. "Hmm... maybe I should ask that Histoire lady for help when we visit her. She seems to know a lot about ancient artifacts from what I've read so maybe she'll have something that will let me decode this thing."

Still gazing at the large scroll with a thoughtful expression, Sync disappeared from the room.

Sadly for Vert, her problems did not end there for the night. As she reached out to grab her desk and regain her sense of direction, she accidentally hit her keyboard with her palm. And as fate would have it, she just so happened to press the hotkey for her damage buff spell.

By the time her vision returned, she found to her horror that her entire party had charged on ahead at her mistaken signal and ended up as alpaca chow. As she turned on her headset again and slowly moved her character forward into the devastated ruins of the battlefield, Ruby's avatar seemed to laboriously raise her head from the floor with a betrayed look.

" _Commander... why...?"_

With those final words, her character shattered into a thousand tiny shards of light. Vert could do nothing but use her 'fall to your knees in horror' gesture ( _4GO2_ added a lot of features with this expansion) and faced the other fallen bodies of her comrades.

" _And so... I return to the darkness of Gehenna..."_ Tanaka gasped out over the headset as his character disappeared as well.

" _Oh, shut up with your theatrics!"_ Kotori angrily yelled, her character already dead from the alpaca's acid spit. _"I'm so not in the mood to deal with your crap right now! Seriously, what the hell guild leader? Why did you just stand there after telling us to go?! We could have totally beaten this boss if you just buffed us properly! Ugh, that's it! I'm done for the night!"_

The rest of the party members seemed to agree with Kotori's outburst as one by one they all disconnected, leaving Vert alone in the boss chamber. With no one else left to focus on, the Demon Alpaca turned its fluffy head towards the Enchanter who was still on her knees in shock.

As her character was blasted into oblivion by the alpaca's laser beam eyes, Vert could not help but wonder if Chika needed any more explosives in her extermination project.

* * *

The rest of the week proved to be just as terrible for the poor Leanbox CPU.

True to his word, Sync actually began work on creating his own Philosopher's Stone during the next couple of days. Unfortunately, his alchemy skills left a lot to be desired as the Basilicom staff members began to spontaneously change into various random animals every time he tested out his numerous prototypes. As if this was not bad enough, Chika happened to get caught up in one of his test-runs and was accidentally transformed into a duck.

Needless to say, the Oracle was less than pleased at her new body and spent the rest of the day chasing after him while quacking up a storm.

Vert meanwhile was trying her best not to go full 'Sadie' on Sync. Though his actions seemed to say otherwise, she knew deep down that the kid was not purposefully trying to annoy her.

After the incident with Chika, Vert had questioned the boy about his motives and learned that he was apparently doing all of this to return the million Ran-Pigs in her possession into their original human forms. Seeing as how the Soldiers had been afflicted by a type of human transmutation, Sync theorized that a properly functioning Philosopher's Stone would be able to reverse their transformations.

Unfortunately, Vert's patience and sanity was starting to run thin even with the knowledge of his good intentions. Having her Basilicom turned into a practical zoo was seriously starting to affect even her casual work-style. And that was not mentioning Chika's continued insistence of glomping her despite her new feathery form. Having a duck trying to bury itself in your chest while flapping about wildly was traumatizing in more ways than one.

As the days went by with more and more of her workers turning into anything from giant Dogoos to humanoid cat-people, Vert felt an increasing need to escape from this ridiculous situation before she went totally insane. That was why, when she woke up one morning to find all of her workers turned into giant talking paperclips, she did the only sensible thing left to her:

Scream and run.

* * *

"Um... Vert? Could you... please let me go now? It's getting... kind of hard to breathe..."

Inside Neptune and Nepgear's room, Vert was busy cuddling Nepgear with a zombified expression as the two of them sat on a plush couch. Unfortunately for the CPU Candidate, her pleas fell on deaf ears as Vert only squished the poor girl's face that much deeper into her large chest.

"Mmmph! Mmph! Mmmmmmmph!"

Nepgear struggled to free her head from this marshmallowy hell for a couple more minutes before she finally stopped moving.

Luckily for her, Neptune chose this moment to make her appearance.

"Nep Jr.~!" the ever-cheery CPU called out happily as she hopped into her room with a game in hand. "B-Sha and Uzume sent us the new _Dank Spirits_ game from the convention they- What the flying guacamole?!"

Upon seeing the situation in the room, Neptune immediately dropped her game and rushed over to help rescue her little sister.

"Vert! Stop trying to kill my sister with your giant gozongos!" Neptune tried desperately to pry Nepgear's unmoving form from Vert's death-grip but to no avail. "Oomph! What's with you today? You're acting clingier than Noire does when she meets a potential new friend!"

(Somewhere in Lastation, Noire let out an enormous sneeze that caused her to scatter the towering stacks of paperwork on her desk.)

After several minutes of intense effort - along with the help of some industrial-strength pliers - Neptune finally managed to pull out Nepgear's head from its bouncy prison.

"Whew! I think my mining skills must have gone up at least ten whole levels from that! Anyways, how are you holding up Nep Jr.?"

Nepgear just continued to remain unconscious as Vert's arms seemed to mechanically draw in the younger girl's head back into her chest.

"Oh no you don't!" Neptune yelled out as she quickly pulled out something from the drawer next to her. "I didn't want to use this but you leave me no choice! Take this! Ultimate Yaoi Distraction!"

With that, the CPU of Planeptune threw a large doujinshi featuring two attractive boys in swimsuits on the cover at Vert's face.

The effect was instantaneous. Vert practically threw aside Nepgear as she instinctively moved to grab hold of the unholy book. The zombified expression she had been wearing up to this point slowly morphed into a dazed, perverted look as she began to read the doujinshi while giggling perversely.

"Mission accomplished!" Neptune remarked with a thumbs-up. "Looks like Blanc was right about Yaoi being super effective against Vert. Well, now that that's taken care of, let's get this Gear back up and running!"

With another dig through her drawer of random supplies, Neptune pulled out a large circuit board and waved it in front of Nepgear's face like a fan. As if responding to the smell, the CPU Candidate shot off the ground and snatched the piece of technology from her sister's hand.

"My precious!" Nepgear shouted out as she began caressing her newly acquired circuit board with gleaming eyes. She soon returned to normal though as she blinked around in confusion. "Eh? Where am I?"

"Welcome to the world of the living!" Neptune greeted with a large smile. "You're amazing sister just saved you from certain death by boob-ification!"

A look of surprise passed on Nepgear's face as she recalled what had happened. "Oh my goodness! That's right! Vert just suddenly flew in here through the balcony and then she tried to suffocate me! Thank goodness you arrived when you did Neptune! I was three steps away from walking over to the light where Gust was waving at me!"

Neptune gave her sister a funny look. "Gust isn't dead. She just went to live with her big sister, Koei Tecmo."

"Oh. Then maybe it was Nisa?"

"Bzzt. Wrong. She only stopped appearing cause she stormed off into another dimension after that big fight with Iffy and Compa."

"Huh. Then who was it that I saw in the afterlife?"

"Who cares?" Neptune dismissed with a wave of her hand. "The point is, you're still alive to continue spending quality time with me! Speaking of which, I'm really pooped from saving your hide so _would you kindly_ go get me some tea? Oh, and some pudding!"

As if programmed to do so, Nepgear immediately rose up to comply with her sister's wishes. However, she paused at the doorway to look back at the still-giggling Vert.

"Um... is she going to be okay?" Nepgear asked worriedly as Vert began to suffer from a minor nosebleed.

"It's fine," Neptune replied as she picked up her copy of _Dank Spirits IV_ from the floor and headed towards the game console. "Blanc said she'll be like that until she finishes the entire book. Seeing how big it is, I think we have a couple of hours before she returns to normal."

"If you say so," Nepgear replied as she left the room with a bit of doubt still in her mind.

* * *

As it turned out, Neptune had been right on the money about Vert. The two Planeptune sisters enjoyed their snacks and even managed to be slaughtered by the giant pig-snake-dragon-mole demon for the fiftieth time in their game before Vert finally seemed to regain consciousness.

"Huh? What in the... Where am I? And why do I have a blood transfusion hooked up to my arm?"

"Oh you're finally awake," Neptune replied distractedly from the floor as she avoided another blast of acid from the monster on-screen. "Nep Jr. was worried you might faint from the massive nosebleed you had halfway through the book so she got you a blood pack."

"Book? What bo-" Vert fell silent again as she looked down and saw the doujinshi in her hands. Her eyes immediately began to glaze over again as she attempted to reread her porn.

"Ah!" Nepgear shouted out as she reentered the room with another batch of pudding for her sister. She quickly put down the snacks and ran over to knock the book out of Vert's hands. "No! Bad Vert! No more Yaoi until you tell us why you suddenly came in here and attacked me!"

Vert looked very much like a sad puppy as Nepgear proceeded to pick up the doujinshi and seal it away into a drawer.

"Okay, you better start spilling the beans," Neptune demanded as she put down the controller after her character got killed once more. "Why did you attack my precious food slave? Um... I mean Nep Jr.! Yeah! That's totally what I meant to say!"

Vert looked at the purple-haired goddess in confusion. "Attack Nepgear? Whatever do you mean?"

"You flew in here looking like a zombie and then proceeded to hug me," Nepgear clarified.

"Yeah! Your boobs were glued to her face like some kind of Facehugger!" Neptune suddenly paused as a look of horrified realization fell across her face. "Oh no! You're planning to grow your own little sister using Nep Jr. as a host! Quick, Nep Jr.! Tell me if you suddenly feel any chest pains! I need to kill the mini-Vert that pops out of you before it escapes and takes over the entire Basilicom!"

Nepgear just gave an uneasy laugh at her sister's random tangent but Vert became frozen at the words 'little sister.'

"Um... Vert?" Nepgear eventually asked in a worried tone as Vert continued to remain silent for a full minute. "Are you okay? You didn't _really_ implant me with one of your clones... did you?"

Vert said nothing as all the disasters that had happened in the past few days came flooding back to her. As she recalled these horrible memories, she instinctively reached out to grab Nepgear.

"Eeek! She's trying to squish me again! Save me, Neptune!"

"Don't worry Nep Jr.! Your big sis is here to protect you!"

With that, Neptune dramatically leaped forward and pushed Nepgear out of harm's way. Unfortunately, Vert's arms still extended forward and entangled around the older sibling instead. The CPU of Leanbox did not seem to notice this sudden change in her victim due to her current mental state and began wrapping her arms tighter around Neptune.

"NO! Neptune!" Nepgear cried out desperately as her sister began to get dragged towards Vert's waiting bosom.

"Don't worry sis," Neptune replied weakly as she attempted to make one last smile towards Nepgear. "I'll always be with you. Just... take care... of Planeptune... for me..."

As Neptune disappeared within the depths of Vert's chest, a soul-crushing text-box suddenly appeared on-screen.

 **[Neptune] has left.**

"Neptune... No... Neptune..." Nepgear's voice broke as tears began to form in her eyes. "Waaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"What is with all this commotion?!"

The Shakespearean drama came to an abrupt end as Histoire floated into the room with her usual annoyed look.

"Oh, hello Histoire," Nepgear immediately responded with a smile as her tears magically vanished. "Neptune and I were just questioning Vert about her sudden appearance before we got a little side-tracked."

Histoire reluctantly let her eyes drift over to the bizarre sight of Vert squishing a squirming Neptune's face into her chest. Without a word, the tiny fairy's palm made its regular trip to her face with an audible _smack!_.

"And here I was reassuring your brother that you were probably just off buying a new game," the Oracle muttered with her eyes still covered.

Histoire's words hit Vert like a sack of bricks. The previously comatose CPU immediately straightened up and turned to face the Oracle with fearful eyes.

"W...W... What?" Vert stuttered out as she began shaking uncontrollably. "M... My... b... b...b... br-?"

"Brother?!" Neptune finished with a surprised gasp as she finally managed to free her head thanks to Vert's suddenly loose grip.

Histoire lowered her hand and faced Vert with a questioning look. "You did not tell them?"

Vert did not get a chance to answer as a familiar figure wearing a green coat suddenly entered the room.

"Ah, there you are Histoire," Sync called out, completely oblivious to the trio of goddesses staring at him due to his eyes being glued to a large rune-covered cube he was holding. "Looks like your idea to use a Dwemer Lexicon to decode that scroll worked out perfectly. If I'm reading this correctly, there's a prophecy about some kind of doomsday dragon that's going to appear at a local village next Tuesday. Apparently, the dragon's going to consume the souls of both the living and the dead unless someone goes up to it and shouts it to death."

"Ah, thank you for bringing this to my attention, Sync," Histoire said with a smile. "I'll make sure to get Uzume to deal with the situation when the time comes."

"Glad to be of assistance. Also, there's this weird part about some vampires trying to blot out the sun with a magic bow and arrow but I'm pretty sure I'm just deciphering that wrong."

As he said this, Sync lowered the cube and finally seemed to notice the other occupants of the room.

Time seemed to freeze as Neptune, Nepgear, and Vert all stared at the boy with various stunned expressions on their faces. In the end, it was Sync who eventually broke the silence.

"Huh... I guess you really do swing that way, sis," Sync casually remarked with a grin as Vert realized too late that she was still holding onto Neptune. "I know international relations are important and all but don't you think this is taking it a bit too far?"

Vert did not respond as she instead just collapsed while foaming at the mouth.


	4. Dimension Tripper

**Ch 4: Dimension Tripper**

After the initial chaos of Sync's appearance died down, the party had settled around the small tea table in the Nep sisters' room. Vert, of course, had remained fainted on the couch but Nepgear made sure to replace the blood pack hooked up to her arm with a packet of high-dosage Nep Bull to help speed up her recovery. Judging from the pained sounds she made when Histoire introduced Sync to the other two, she was already gaining some semblance of consciousness.

Neptune, meanwhile, was busy taking the news of Sync's identity with her usual level of maturity and composure. Which was to say, not a whole lot.

"Whaaaaat?! CPU Candidate?! But... he's a guy! We never have important male characters unless they're villains, robots, or giant talking fish! Wait, is he actually just an android that happens to look like a guy? Cause that would make way more sense then-"

She was promptly cut off as Histoire bopped her on the head. "Nepu! What was that for Histy?"

Histoire crossed her arms as she glared at the loud-mouthed CPU. "Neptune, I understand that social etiquette is not one of your strong points but please refrain from being so rude to our guest!"

"I'm not being rude," Neptune replied with a pout. "I'm just trying to figure out why a male character would show up in a series clearly based around cute girls and tons of fanservice." A look of surprised horror suddenly fell across Neptune's face as a thought occurred to her. "Oh, no! Are we stuck inside a crappy fanfic where an obviously self-insert male OC comes along and turns us all into his sexy harem members?! Quick, someone check the ratings to see if we're going to have to do anything lewd!"

Histoire gave a facepalm to this while Nepgear just gave an uneasy laugh. Sync, on the other hand, seemed to find Neptune's wild ravings more amusing than anything else as he answered her question with a small, mischievous grin.

"The story's only rated T. I doubt there's going to be any kinky harem action in here. As for being a self-insert OC, I highly doubt it. I'd probably be much more mysterious and be plotting to bring about the next Conquest Ending if that was the case. Our author is a bit weird like that."

Everyone in the room fell completely silent as they all turned to stare at Sync. Well, except for Vert, who simply let out yet another groan in her half-conscious state.

Not surprisingly, it was Neptune who found her voice first.

"Hey! Breaking the fourth wall is my gimmick! You can't just go around stealing other peoples' defining characteristics, buster!"

Sync raised an eyebrow at her. "I thought breaking the fourth wall was the norm for everyone here?"

Neptune seemed to puff up like some kind of angry bird as she faced him with a look of mild indignation. "Hmph! Looks like someone forgot to read the instruction manual on how things work around here! Alright, listen up newbie! I'm going to tell you exactly why I have first dibs when it comes to breaking the fourth wall! I'm-"

"Neptune, the self-proclaimed Protagonist of Protagonists."

All of the bravado seemed to drain out of the hyped up CPU as she stared at the boy in surprise. Like a shark smelling blood in the waters, Sync immediately caught onto Neptune's shocked reaction and widened his grin.

"Your official title is Purple Heart and you're the CPU of Planeptune," he continued speaking. "You're well-known for being energetic and bright to the point of idiocy. You also have a tendency to break the fourth wall and spout out memes whenever you get the chance. In contrast, however, you're HDD personality is much more mature and also a touch more arrogant. You're favorite food is custard pudding while eggplants are your most hated. Your height in human form is 146 cm, weight is 38 kg, and your cup size is an A. In HDD form, your height increases to 164 cm, weight becomes 48 kg, and your cup size enlarges to an E." He paused for a bit as he put on a show of trying to remember something. "Oh, and you currently hold the world record of 'longest-lasting impression of a kangaroo.' If I recall correctly, you jumped around while shouting 'Byoing!' for nearly two whole weeks before you finally collapsed from pudding deficit."

The dumbfounded expression on Neptune's face was so priceless that Noire would have probably traded over Uni to get a picture of it had she been there (okay, perhaps not Uni but definitely her private cosplay collection at least). Of course, it was not just Planeptune's CPU who was shocked by all of this as Histoire and Nepgear also looked at Sync with nearly identical dumbfounded expressions.

Off to the side, Vert unconsciously covered her face with her hand.

After waiting a few seconds and not getting a response, Sync gave a nonchalant shrug as he answered the unspoken question that hung in the air like a dense fog. "Sis had a detailed profile of all of you in her library. I figured I might as well get some research done before meeting with all of her friends."

With a grin still on his face, he grabbed one of the cups of tea that had gone untouched so far and took a long, drawn-out drink while patiently waiting for Neptune to explode.

She did not disappoint.

"STALKER! PERVERT! GARY-STU!" the purple-haired goddess screamed while pointing her finger accusingly at the source of her panic. "HE'S ALREADY TARGETING ME TO BECOME HIS FIRST HAREM MEMBER! NOOOOOO! I WON'T LET YOU SEDUCE ME! I'LL NEVER LET YOU USE MY ADORABLE BODY FOR YOUR KINKY-!"

Thankfully, Histoire recovered just in time to interrupt Neptune by grabbing her by the ear.

"That's quite enough Neptune!" the Oracle yelled out over the CPU's pained protests. "Your behavior today has been completely unacceptable!"

"Me?!" Neptune shouted in disbelief as she struggled to free herself from Histoire's grip. " But... but... what about him?! He's trying to turn us all into-!"

"Do not try to change the subject when I'm talking to you, young lady!" Judging from her tone and steely eyes, Histoire was already far gone into her dreaded lecture mode. Neptune gave a loud gulp of fear upon noticing this but by then it was already too late to stop the oncoming storm.

Even Sync could not help but wince as Histoire began to scold Neptune with the wrath of a thousand angry mothers. Just as he put down his teacup and considered jumping in to help the poor CPU, a hesitant voice spoke up next to him.

"Um... was there anything about me in those profiles as well?" Nepgear asked shyly.

All concerns for Neptune were set aside as Sync put on his usual playful smile and faced his fellow CPU Candidate.

"Of course. Sis had an _extremely_ detailed description about you," he answered in a scandalous tone, making the implications as clear as day.

Rather than getting riled up, Nepgear just gave a startled yelp while scooting away from him. Much to her confusion, however, Sync just shook his head and gave a small sigh at her reaction.

"Sheesh, you're making this way too easy for me," he remarked in a disappointed tone. "At least quip back at me like your sister. Honestly, teasing you makes me feel like I just kicked a small puppy."

Nepgear's self-deprecation instantly kicked in as she lowered her head in despair. "A puppy? Do I really look that pathetic?"

Sync suddenly gave an amused snort, causing Nepgear to look up at him in surprise. Realizing he had her attention he gave her a friendly little smile. "I think you misunderstood me. I'm just saying there's no fun in making fun of someone as innocent as you. That's hardly something worth beating yourself over. And besides, what's wrong with being compared to a puppy? Puppies are cute."

His cheerful words seemed to have a positive effect on Nepgear as she gave a small laugh at his last comment before giving him a smile in return. Unfortunately, Sync was not the only one to notice this.

"NOOOOO!" Neptune shouted out from the side. "NEP JR.! DON'T FALL FOR HIS-"

"NEPTUNE! YOU WILL FACE ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

Both CPU Candidates winced as the entire room shook from the force of Histoire's shout.

After a brief silence broken only by Histoire's ongoing lecture and Neptune's futile distraction attempts, Sync spoke up to Nepgear again in a rather serious tone.

"Actually... to tell the truth, I've been wanting to meet you ever since I read your profile."

Nepgear could not help but blush at his words. "R...Really? You wanted to see me?"

Sync definitely noticed her reddening face if his playful grin was anything to go by. However, he seemed to think better of teasing her about it as he simply shook his head and continued on with his explanation.

"Not in the way your thinking," he casually said, causing Nepgear to look rather embarrassed about her misunderstanding. Sync went on as if he did not notice. "I read that you have exceptional skill in various fields of science. As such, I was wondering if you could use your knowledge to help me with a pet project of mine. I'm not sure if it crosses over into your field of expertise but I have a Philosopher's Stone that could require some fine-tuning."

All prior embarrassment or hesitation was wiped clean from her face as Nepgear's eyes immediately lit up like a pair of dazzling stars.

"You have a Philosopher's Stone?!" she shouted out excitedly. "I've been trying to get my hands on one for years! Do you realize the amount of atomic discoveries that can be made by studying its ability to transform lead into gold?!"

"Um... actually, I'm just trying to return all of sis's Ran-Pigs back into-"

Nepgear did not seem to hear him as she instead she got up and grabbed him by the arm.

"Less talk, more science!"

The next thing he knew, Sync was being dragged out of the room by a hyperactive Nepgear. Behind him, Histoire and Neptune continued on with their bickering as they failed to notice the obvious disaster-in-the-making. Vert, meanwhile, just gave yet another groan in her sleep.

* * *

It was well past sunset when the comatose CPU finally woke up.

As Vert slowly opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling, she realized just how clear her head felt. Sure her mental state was still in utter disarray from the memory of what had just happened before she collapsed, but she was not feeling any physical dizziness or pain like the last time she had been knocked out. The absence of Chika trying to suffocate her also helped in that matter. Shifting her eyes to the side a bit, she saw the IV drip attached to her and realized that this must be the reason for her physical restoration.

With a sigh, she sat up and slowly unhooked the now-empty medicine pouch from herself while taking in her surroundings. She was still inside the Nep sisters' room but only Histoire and Neptune were currently present at the moment. The purple-haired CPU was busy playing _Dank Spirits IV_ (something that Vert sorely wished she could be playing herself instead of having to deal with all of this) while Histoire was off to the side looking through some paperwork on the tea table.

Vert was just about to wonder why Histoire was working here rather than in her own office when the Oracle finally seemed to realize that her guest was awake.

"Ah, good to have you back with us, Vert. I was hoping you'd be back up before dinner."

Vert remained silent as she simply looked around the room once more. Realizing that the bane of her existence was missing, she gave a loud sigh as she decided to get the immediate question out of the way first.

"Where is he?" she asked, her exasperated voice making it crystal clear she was not asking this out of concern for his welfare.

Histoire raised an eyebrow at Vert's tone but chose not to comment on it as she answered the question.

"I believe Sync went off with Nepgear a while ago. She's probably giving him a tour of the place."

"I doubt that," Neptune suddenly said as she turned away from the TV. "He's probably just trying to seduce Nep Jr. into joining his harem! I bet he's trying to recover from how I totally rejected his sorry-"

She immediately fell silent with a surprised "Nepu!" when Histoire threw a crumpled wad of paper at her forehead.

"I believe I told you to stop with that kind of talk, Neptune?" the Oracle said in a dangerously calm voice. "Or perhaps you need a remedial lesson on proper etiquette again?"

Neptune wisely chose to remain silent as she instead turned to focus back on her game.

With a sigh, Histoire turned back to Vert. "As you can see, I've been busy keeping an eye on Neptune this whole time. The last thing I wanted was for her to ruin Nepgear's chance of making a new friend."

"Nep Jr. doesn't need to be friends with a guy like him! The only thing that lies down that path is the dreaded Harem Ending!"

Vert was not in the mood for anymore shenanigans so she chose to speak up again before Histoire blew up once more.

"Please tell me this is just a bad joke, Histoire. I mean, there's no way that... _boy_ can be my b... b... ugh... CPU Candidate of Leanbox."

Histoire's glare shifted over from Neptune to Vert without losing any of its intensity.

"He is your brother, Vert," the Oracle said with an air of finality. "I've run a preliminary scan on him when he arrived here – alone, I should remind you – and found conclusive evidence that he was born from this dimension's Leanbox Sharicite."

Vert seemed to disregard the warning tone in Histoire's voice as she went into full-out denial mode.

"Your scan was probably faulty then," Vert desperately said while shaking her head. "If he's actually the CPU Candidate, then why can't I properly sense his connection to the Sharicite? It's still disjointed and completely unreadable even after all this time! And more importantly... why is he even a boy in the first place?! We've never had a male CPU or CPU Candidate before!"

"See?!" Neptune chirped in enthusiastically. "Even Vert agrees that its weird for him to be a dude! I told you he's a Gary-Stu OC trying to collect all of us for his-"

Another crumpled wad of paper to the face promptly shut Neptune up as Histoire leveled herself on Vert with a disappointed expression.

"I expected better from you Vert. I thought you would accept all of this with your usual level of maturity."

When the blonde CPU simply buried her head in her hands and started mumbling to herself, Histoire gave a tired sigh and decided to first calm her down a bit by answering her questions.

"I admit I do not know the reason for his faulty connection to your Sharicite. I shall have to perform a more in-depth analysis later on to figure out the reason for this. The only thing I can say for certain at the moment is that his unstable connection to the share crystal will definitely have an effect on his powers."

"I knew it! He's a Gary-Stu! He's probably stronger than all of us combined and-"

A cushion made contact with Neptune's head this time as Histoire dusted off her hands.

"Ahem. As I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted, Sync has a paltry amount of share energy compared to everyone else. It doubt it will affect his everyday life but he'll definitely be falling short when it comes to combat prowess. In fact, I'm not even sure if he can transform given his current level of share energy."

Vert did not immediately respond as she slowly lowered her hands and digested all of this. While she was glad the boy was not some kind of overpowered super god, she was not exactly all that pleased about the implications of his apparent handicap either. If she was actually going to be saddled with him (the terrifying prospect looking more and more likely as time went on), she was probably going to be held responsible for his safety even if his own reckless behavior got him into trouble in the first place.

Noticing the distressed look on Vert's face, Histoire spoke up once again.

"I'm sure you won't have to worry about Sync too much," the Oracle said, completely misinterpreting Vert's expression for one of concern. "While his share energy itself is low, he is actually extremely efficient at processing it. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say his processing power is probably even greater than that of your NEXT-Gen form. Combined with his unique spatial powers, I'm sure he'll be able to get himself out of most tough situations just fine."

Vert hardly seemed relieved to hear this as her head seemed to fall even lower.

"You still haven't told me why he's a boy," she eventually muttered.

Histoire crossed her arms with a thoughtful expression. "Hmm... that I can't say for sure. It probably has something to do with the mystery of his improper bonding with the share crystal but even that is just a guess. Another possibility is that a massive number of Leanbox citizens wished for a male CPU Candidate but considering your general fanbase, I find that highly unlikely."

Upon hearing about her citizens and realizing that she would have to publicly announce Sync's presence - as well as dealing with the inevitable fallout that such an announcement would make - Vert mentally collapsed and slumped over in complete and utter defeat.

"I want a refund..." she muttered weakly to no one in particular.

Histoire's eyes turned steely again as she glared down at the broken CPU.

"That's quite enough of that Vert," the Oracle admonished. "I realize Sync isn't the little sister you always dreamed about but he is still your family. Whining about it won't change anything so you better get used to your new life as an older sister. Once he gets back, I expect you to apologize for your behavior towards him until now and start acting like someone befitting your age and position." She paused as her expression softened just a bit. "And given time, who knows? Perhaps you will grow to cherish him even more than your imaginary notion of having a little sister."

A long silence filled the room broken only by the sound of Neptune's game. After a good three minutes had passed, Vert slowly raised her head to reveal the resigned look of someone who had given up entirely on life. Looking even more zombie-like than when she had glomped Nepgear earlier that day, Vert turned to face Neptune with a blank stare.

"Any chance you'll trade Nepgear for him?"

"Nuh uh!" Neptune immediately exclaimed while holding up her arms to form an 'X' for good measure. "No way am I giving up Nep Jr. for a Gary-Stu like him! You've got to be completely out of your mind if you think I'll-"

A pair of cushions hit both Neptune and Vert so hard that they were sent sprawling to the floor.

"You two..." Histoire growled out as the very earth seemed to shake from her menacing aura. "I have just about had it with you're-"

Her angry tirade was cut short when the shaking suddenly intensified. As it turned out, Histoire's anger had nothing to do with the enormous tremor as an earthquake suddenly shook the entire building. Both Vert and Neptune got up from their concussed daze and tried to look for cover when the shaking stopped just a few seconds later. As it did though, every electronic device in the room suddenly shut down... including Neptune's game console.

"NOOOOOO!" Neptune cried out as she ran over and grabbed onto the blank TV screen. "I was five steps away from reaching the next bonfire!"

"Be quiet Neptune!" Histoire shouted into the dimly lit room. "I'm trying to figure out how to turn on my emergency flashlight feature!"

As it turned out, she did not need to bother as the back-up generators apparently kicked in and restored power to the building. Sadly for Neptune, her game data had not been so lucky.

While the purple-haired CPU continued to cry about her game, Histoire brought up her holographic communicator to contact the front desk and find out the extent of damage the earthquake had just caused. Before she could dial however, an incoming call message suddenly appeared on her screen.

"Why is Nepgear calling?" Histoire exclaimed in surprise, instantly gaining both Neptune and Vert's attention. Her expression slowly fell into a worried frown as a distressing thought crossed her mind. "Oh no. I hope she and Sync were not hurt in that earthquake."

Her worst fears seemed to be confirmed however when Nepgear appeared on-screen looking extremely worse for the wear. Her clothes were covered in dirt and her hair was a complete mess as she stared into the screen with a distressed look. Behind her, a crumbled wall could be seen as if the building she was in was teetering on the edge of collapse.

 _"Histoire? Oh thank goodness!"_ A look of immense relief passed across Nepgear's face as she realized her call had gone through. _"I thought we'd never establish contact with you!"_

"I'm sorry about not picking up sooner," Histoire replied worriedly. "More importantly however, are both you and Sync alright? Where exactly are you right now?"

 _"We're both fine... for the moment."_ Nepgear turned to look to her side for a bit as if confirming her safety before turning back to the call. _"As for where we are, I... honestly have no idea."_

A confused look fell across Histoire's face. "You don't know? Weren't you inside the Basilicom when the earthquake happened?"

 _"Earthquake?! Is everyone alright?! Oh, I knew something would go wrong while we were away!"_

"Whoa, hold up there Nep Jr.!" Neptune interrupted as she pushed herself in front of Histoire's screen (much to the Oracle's displeasure). "What do you mean while you were away? You've only been gone for a few hours."

 _"Hours? Oh, gosh darn it! So there was a time difference between our worlds after all!"_

 _"Told you,"_ Sync's smug voice called out from the side. _"Looks like someone owes me a cake."_

"Hey! Stop trying to mooch off my- Nepu!"

After successfully wrenching Neptune away from her screen, Histoire turned to face Nepgear with an stern expression.

"Nepgear... would you like to explain to us what exactly happened?"

The CPU Candidate definitely took note of Histoire's expression as she began to sweat nervously. _"Oh... um... f... funny story that. You see, Sync and I were testing out his Philosopher's Stone in my lab when I... er... tripped."_

"You tripped?" Histoire repeated with a raised eyebrow.

 _"Over one of my anti-headcrab crowbars,"_ Nepgear clarified. _"Unfortunately, I happened to fall onto one of the additional Pylons I had lying around and it got knocked into the containment field we set up around the Philosopher's Stone. The warp field generated by the Pylon must have reacted to the alchemic energies of the stone to create a disruption in the stabilized ions which then caused-"_

"Skip the technobabble and cut to the chase Nep Jr.," Neptune interrupted. "You're making my head hurt."

 _"Well, to put it simply, I ended up causing an explosion that sent me and Sync into an alternate dimension."_

"And I assume that was the earthquake we just felt," Vert stated flatly.

 _"Oh, hi sis!"_ Sync suddenly called out with a wave as he stuck his head in from the side. _"And yeah, the explosion was probably what shook the building."_

"Don't call me sis."

 _"Anyways,"_ Nepgear cut in, obviously noticing the bulging vein on Histoire's head, _"when we woke up, we found ourselves in this unknown city. To make matters worse, we soon ran into this angry black hedgehog who began hunting us down ever since Sync tried to talk to it."_

 _"In my defense,"_ Sync cut in, _"I was simply telling him that he was trying way too hard to be edgy with his dark looks and that over-sized machine gun of his. How was I supposed to know that he'd take it so personally?"_

Nepgear just let out a sigh before continuing with her explanation. _"We tried to fight the hedgehog but he turned out to be too fast for us to handle. Luckily, Sync was able to teleport us out of danger and we've been on the run ever since. We managed to lose him a couple of days ago so we decided to take shelter in this abandoned warehouse for the time being. We've also been scavenging for parts since then to try and reconstruct a dimensional portal to get back home."_

"Ooh! Just like what we did back when we were trapped in the Zero Dimension!" Neptune chirped in excitedly.

The younger sister did not get a chance to respond as Histoire spoke up in a voice that practically dripped with death.

"Nepgear... I seem to recall grounding you from any unauthorized science experiments for an entire month after that Nepgeardam incident. Would you care to explain to me why you disobeyed me and ended up causing this entire mess?"

The poor CPU Candidate began shaking like a leaf under Histoire's fearsome gaze.

 _"I... I was... I was just helping Sync out with his project!"_ Nepgear desperately said in her defense. This did not seem to placate the angry Oracle one bit as her glare only intensified.

"If that was the case, shouldn't you have asked for my permission first?!"

Nepgear could not come up with an answer to that as she continued shaking in fright. Luckily for her, Sync came to her rescue.

 _"Ahem. I believe we have more pressing matters at the moment,"_ he casually commented. _"I think we should focus on getting me and Nepgear out of here before that crazy hedgehog shows up again."_

Histoire gave a tired sigh at this as she dropped her glare. "Very well. However, do not think I'm letting this matter drop Nepgear. Expect a full lecture from me once you get back."

 _"Y... Yes ma'am!"_

Histoire turned her gaze towards Sync who was still hanging out on the edge of the screen. "I assume I simply have to channel a bit of share energy through this connection to let you gain a fix on our dimensional coordinates?"

 _"Yep. That should about do it."_

As Vert and Neptune watched, Histoire began focusing Planeptune's share energy through the com-link while Nepgear and Sync moved off-screen to start up their dimensional transporter. The unseen machine gave off a loud hum as it apparently began to charge up to full power.

 _"The warp field is stable,"_ Nepgear reported. _"Power level at 97... 98... 99... 100%. Locking onto dimensional coordinates now."_

Just as she finished saying that, a loud explosion suddenly shook the entire warehouse.

 _"There you are!"_ a deep, angry voice yelled out from the apparently newly-made hole in the building. _"I'll show you who's an edgy edgelord!"_

 _"Oh, crap,"_ Sync was heard muttering.

 _"Chaos... Control!"_

The intruder's yell was the last thing to be heard before the live feed came to an abrupt end.

Histoire, Vert, and Neptune all remained silent as they stared in horror at the static-filled screen. Their shock did not last for long, however, as the holographic screen flared to life a few seconds later to notify them that Nepgear was apparently calling them again. With a shaking hand, Histoire answered the call.

 _"I- thing- on?"_ Sync's distorted yet distinctive voice called out as his hazy image flickered as well. After a few seconds though, the connection seemed to stabilize as his tired form showed up just as he let out a relieved sigh. _"Whew. Fixing up this N-Gear without Nepgear's help was a lot harder than I expected."_

"What?!" Neptune yelled out in panic. "What happened to Nep Jr.?! Don't tell me you already seduced her and made her sacrifice herself to save you!"

Sync just gave a small laugh to this. _"Don't worry. She's... fine."_ His hesitation was not lost on the group as they all narrowed their eyes at him. Seeing their reaction, he gave a tired sigh. _"She's just been distracted by this world's technology ever since we got here."_

Now that he mentioned it, the three onlookers finally noticed that he was indeed in a different setting. Instead of an old warehouse, he was currently standing in what looked like an extremely dilapidated mall. Behind him, a large glass window could be seen showing off the bizarre sight of an enormous underwater city.

 _"I managed to grab Nepgear and teleport us into the portal before the psycho hedgehog got to us,"_ Sync explained as he carried over his communicator and sat down on a nearby bench. _"Unfortunately, the coordinates got messed up thanks to all the commotion and we ended up here as a result."_

"Are you okay?" Histoire asked, falling back to her worrying mother role. "Were you attacked by anything in your current world?"

Sync gave a shrug. _"Eh. Just some crazy mutant humans. Nepgear and I found a pair of wrenches to beat them back though. I have no idea why but it seems the wrench does extra damage to just about everything here."_ He paused as a deep, rumbling sound similar to a whale sounded from nearby. _"Well, except for those giant diving suit monsters. Those things are ridiculously hard to take down even with our new weapon. Luckily, we haven't met too many of those things during our time here."_

"And just how long have you been there anyways?" Vert asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

 _"Well... there's practically no sunlight down here to judge time with thanks to the whole 'underwater city' business but I'd probably wager at least a week. At least, if the number of food wrappers and dead bodies piled up around here are anything to go by."_

Vert was very glad Sync did not show them a shot of the ground around him.

"What exactly is Nepgear doing?" Histoire asked, her previous frustration slowly setting back in. "Shouldn't she be helping you build another dimensional transporter to get back home?"

 _"Like I said earlier, she's currently distracted,"_ he answered with tired grin. _"She's been busy tearing down this entire city to collect all of its tech. Seeing as how all of you know her so well, I think you can guess just what kind of technology they happen to use down here."_

Histoire gave a facepalm as she let out a mighty groan. "Steampunk?"

Sync nodded. _"Steampunk."_

A few seconds passed in silence before he spoke up again. _"I know it's kinda late in asking this but is there any chance you can just send someone to rescue us? Like maybe a friendly dimensional traveler or something like that?"_

Histoire wanted to faceplant onto the table for not thinking of that solution sooner. "I need a vacation," she muttered to herself before facing Sync. "We actually do have someone we can send to rescue you and Nepgear. In fact, I'll send Neptune to go fetch her right now."

"What? Why do I have to be the errand girl?" Neptune whined.

"Because none of this would have happened in the first place if I hadn't been too distracted by you to notice Nepgear slipping away into her lab!" Histoire shot back. "Now go out there and bring over your other self before I put you on paperwork duty for the rest of the year!"

This finally did the trick as Neptune gave a fearful "Nepu!" before rocketing out of the room.

"She's probably hanging out at the manga cafe again!" Histoire called out towards the retreating girl's form. She did not know if Neptune heard her but she was confident that the CPU would get the job done one way or the other with such a dangerous threat looming over her.

"Um... Do we _really_ need to call over the other Neptune?" Vert suddenly asked from the side. "Can't we just figure out a way to deal with this ourselves?"

Histoire turned on her with a scowl that instantly made her regret her words.

"Are you saying we should just leave your brother and Nepgear in that mutant-infested hellhole?" the Oracle growled out dangerously.

Vert could not help but cower underneath the overwhelming presence of Histoire's wrath. While she was deathly afraid of Sync learning how to travel through dimensions from the older Neptune, she was even more afraid of what Histoire would do to her if she spoke out against their current rescue idea any further.

"N... N... No! Not at all!" Vert frantically said. "I was just... um... saying that we should come up with a back-up plan in case this one fails!"

Histoire did not seem convinced by this answer as she continued to tower over the terrified CPU (a remarkable feat for someone who was barely over a meter tall). Luckily for Vert, a loud metallic clang coming from Sync's end of the call suddenly interrupted them.

 _"Oh boy... Looks like she's at it again,"_ Sync muttered as he grabbed his communicator and moved away from the terrifying, inhuman roar that sounded off nearby. _"I hope your associate gets here soon because I don't think this city is going to last for much longer."_

 _"Give me that Rivet Gun!"_ Nepgear's crazed voice yelled out from the distance. _"I need it for my collection!"_

Another enraged roar along with the sound of several collapsing structures followed shortly afterwards.

Histoire could not help but facepalm as the sound of utter chaos continued to play out from her screen. As for Vert, she used this perfect opportunity to slowly make her way towards the open door...

* * *

"Whew! Looks like we managed to make it out just in time!"

Thirty minutes after the chaotic interlude, Big Nep successfully managed to track down the dimension tripping duo and brought them back to the safety of the Nep sisters' room. Despite having just escaped a collapsing building with their lives barely intact, the three of them looked relatively upbeat. Big Neptune looked more excited than anything else while Sync just looked mildly amused at the whole misadventure. Both of their brightness paled in comparison to Nepgear though as she looked positively ecstatic about the huge pile of steampunk weaponry and gadgets that Big Neptune had managed to bring along with them.

"Heh heh heh... I'll make sure to keep you close forever and ever Mr. Rivet Gun," Nepgear lovingly whispered out as she caressed the steam-powered gun in her hand.

Deciding not to interrupt Nepgear's romantic little moment, Sync instead turned to face their savior.

"Thank you for rescuing us," he said, adding in a polite bow to accompany his words. "I have to say, you looked really awesome when you appeared to save us from that diving suit monster."

Big Neptune promptly ran over to hug him as if he was a stuffed animal. "Awww... he's adorable _and_ sweet! Hey, Histy! Can I keep him?"

 _"Oh, great,"_ Croire muttered irritably from within the Nep-Note. _"Now she's turning into a shotacon as well."_

Neptune was less than pleased about her counterpart's actions as well.

"No! Don't fall for his cute act!" Neptune yelled out as she tried to pull Sync away from her older self. "It's all a trick to get you to join his harem!"

"Oh, come on," Big Nep countered as she tightened her grip on the boy. "There's no way an adorable little teddy bear like him is ever going to be a big nasty harem lord. If anything, I'm going to add him to _my_ collection!"

"Um... ladies?" Sync's muffled voice said from somewhere within Big Neptune's breasts. "As much as I don't mind being in this situation, could you please not put me inside that notebook? I'd rather not spend the rest of my life with an ill-tempered Histoire clone as my roommate."

 _"Hey!"_

The playful shenanigans within the room were abruptly interrupted however when a fearsome voice suddenly spoke up.

"Ahem. Now that we're all safely back here, why don't we take some time to discuss what exactly happened today?"

Both Neptunes let go of Sync as they, along with everyone else, turned to face Histoire with fear in their eyes. If the tiny Oracle had a second form, then this was probably what it looked like as a fiery aura surrounded her entire body. Killing intent seemed to roll off of her in waves as she slowly looked over the group as if picking out who to unleash her fury upon.

Much to Nepgear's horror, Histoire's eyes eventually landed on her.

"Nepgear," the Oracle said in a falsely sweet voice. "I'm pretty sure we made an appointment for a lecture once you got back. Shall we get started now?"

Nepgear responded by taking cover behind her pile of steampunk gadgetry.

"Save me Neptunes! You're my only hope!"

Surprisingly, it wasn't the purple-haired duo who came in to rescue the poor tinkerer. It was hard to tell whether it was on purpose or not but Sync's stomach suddenly let out a growl loud enough to cause a small tremor.

"Whoops," he said with a sheepish grin. "I guess I forgot about my hunger in all the excitement."

The tense atmosphere was immediately broken by his nonchalant comment. Luckily, Histoire's anger seemed to wax a tiny bit as well as she let loose an enormous sigh and turned off her fiery aura.

"I suppose getting some food might not be such a bad idea right now," the Oracle muttered as she turned away from her victim. "Nepgear, as punishment, you are in charge of making dinner for all of us tonight. If I am satisfied with your meal, I might consider letting you off with a warning."

"Y... Y... Yes! Of course! I won't let you down!"

With that, Nepgear zoomed off towards the kitchen without delay. She did take a second to flash a grateful look towards Sync as she ran by him though. However, he did not seem to notice as his attention was fixed elsewhere.

"Huh? Where's sis?" he asked after seeing no sign of the blonde goddess.

"She ran off somewhere before you got back," Histoire growled out as she floated over to the door. "I swear, she's acting more immature than Neptune. When will she stop focusing on her delusional fantasies and face reality?"

Still grumbling to herself, Histoire exited the room as well. Sync, on the other hand, stayed where he was and gave a large sigh.

"Oh boy. Well... looks like I'll need to go big sis hunting again."

"You can do that later," Big Neptune interrupted cheerfully as she grabbed Sync's arm and began to lead him out of the room. "For now, let's go help Nepgear make dinner first. She'll need all the help she can get to match Histy's expectations and survive. Oh, and maybe we can convince her to make us some pudding while we're at it!"

"Pudding?! Count me in too!" Neptune shouted excitedly as she followed the exiting pair. "Besides, I need to keep tabs on our Gary-Stu anyways!"

Sync brightened up again as he faced the shorter girl with a laugh. "What? Were you afraid I was going to dress everyone up in maid outfits while you weren't looking?"

"Aha! So you admit it! Well too bad buster, I've got my eyes on you! You're not going to be dressing anybody up, not while Detective Neptune is on the case!"

A mischievous grin appeared on Sync's face for a brief second as he made a mental note to find a sexy cop outfit for Neptune in the future. Presently however, he had more important matters to attend to.

Turning his head to face the older Neptune, he spoke up in the most innocent voice he could muster.

"By the way... would you be willing to teach me the basic principles behind dimensional traveling?"

Big Neptune gave a large smile as she replied without hesitation. "Sure! But you'll have to call me Ms. Neptune while I'm teaching you, okay?"

"You got it, Ms. Neptune."

Sync could not help but smile as he could practically hear his sister letting out a horrified scream.


	5. Of Moles and Men

**Ch 5: Of Moles and Men**

Vert gave a forlorn sigh as she sat on Uni's couch while squeezing the stuffing out of her cushions.

After making her escape from Histoire, Vert had made her way to Lastation in the hopes of finding and cuddling Uni. Unfortunately, the mini-Tsundere had been missing from her room when Vert had sneaked in through the window, forcing her to wait for her victim's arrival. After waiting in ambush for nearly an hour though, she had sadly given up the mission as a lost cause as she decided that Uni was apparently spending the night elsewhere.

With her expected source of stress-relief suddenly missing, Vert had been forced to hug the nearby cushions while imagining that they were the CPU Candidate instead. While it did feel nice to have something being smothered within her breasts, it was just not the same without the intense struggling and adorable sounds of protest to accompany it.

 _This is just sad,_ her logical side dryly commented within her mind. _We're supposed to be the goddess of an entire nation and yet here we are crushing cushions like some kind of angsty teenage girl._

Vert promptly ignored the voice in her head as she simply squeezed the cushions that much tighter.

Silence fell upon the room for the next few minutes before a loud knock suddenly echoed from the presumably locked door.

"Vert!" Noire's irritated voice yelled out. "I know you're in there! My guards saw you climb in through the window! Now get out of Uni's room this instant and explain yourself!"

Not in the mood to deal with this at the moment, Vert just gave a groan and retreated into her mental landscape.

" _And here I was hoping for some peace and quiet,"_ she muttered despondently.

Only her logical side paid her any attention when she arrived while her other selves simply went about their own business in the background.

" _It's been kind of hard to do any hoping since our idealistic side died,"_ the glasses-wearing persona remarked. _"Of course, it's been nice not having to deal with her idiotic ramblings either."_

Vert just gave another sigh as she tuned out the furious door bashing and shouting that was occurring in the real world and focused on her own mental conversation. _"Didn't we find a temporary replacement for that position? I mean, I'm pretty sure I felt something resembling hope while I was playing my MMO a few days ago."_

Logical Vert crossed her arms and gave a sigh of her own. _"That was probably Pirate Vert. We told her to take up the idealist position until we got a permanent replacement."_

" _I have a pirate personality?"_ Vert asked with a surprised look.

" _You_ had _a pirate personality. She got into a fight with your ninja personality a few hours ago and ended up eating a Rasengan to the face. Turns out ninjas are apparently better fighters than pirates are."_

As she said this, a Vert wearing an orange jumpsuit suddenly jumped in between them.

" _Believe it!"_ Ninja Vert shouted out before disappearing again in a swirl of leaves.

After a couple seconds of stunned silence, Vert covered her face with both hands and slowly shook her head. _"Even I'm starting to question my sanity at this point..."_

" _I've been doing that since we were born,"_ Logical Vert said with a roll of her eyes.

Eventually, Vert lowered her hands and faced her glasses-wearing self with a tired yet serious look.

" _So what do we do now? Do we just keep running for the rest of our lives? Maybe escape to a remote corner of Zero Dimension and start up a new life as a cabbage farmer?"_

Logical Vert gave a snort to this. _"Don't be stupid. We're not going to abandon our nation just because of one kid."_

" _Then what? Should we help Chika kill him? I think our dark side knows a guy who can sell us some high-quality weapons and poisons at a discount price."_

" _No. Just... no."_

After a brief bout of silence, Logical Vert spoke up again. _"I think we all know what needs to be done. It's hardly my preferred choice either but we're out of options now. The only reasonable thing we can do at this point is to simply take the boy in."_

Vert wanted to scream and rage against this idea but even she knew that it was pointless to resist any further. Her one chance of being rid of the boy without resorting to drastic measures had disappeared the moment Histoire sided with him. Now it was all but inevitable that he would be stuck with her.

Seeing the crestfallen look on her main self's face, Logical Vert walked over and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

" _T_ _his is a bitter pill to swallow but it has to be done. Of course, none of us are expecting you to just accept this idea right away. I know you need some time to come to terms with it so why don't you take a couple of days off in the real world to calm down and relax for a bit?"_

" _And where would I go?"_ Vert asked in a world-weary voice. _"Both the boy and Histoire are probably looking for me as we speak."_

Logical Vert lowered her hand and thought about this for a couple of seconds before coming up with an answer. _"Maybe you can ask Noire to let you hide here for a couple of days. If you can convince her to keep away any unwanted guests, you can finally have some quality alone-time to yourself."_

" _And just how in the world would I do that?"_

Logical Vert adjusted her glasses so that they were suddenly gleaming despite the lack of any noticeable light source.

" _Just leave that to me..."_

* * *

"About freaking time!" Noire angrily yelled out as the door finally opened with a small click. "You better have a good explanation as to why- SWEET MERCIFUL TWINTAILS!"

The reason for her surprise became obvious as the door fully opened to reveal Vert. The blonde goddess looked like a complete wreck with her hair in utter disarray and her clothes torn in several places. Even more surprisingly though was the fact that her eyes were completely red as if she had been crying up to this point.

While Noire continued to stare at her disheveled image in shock, Vert was busy mentally whining to her other persona.

 _I can't believe you made me tear up my favorite dress,_ she complained with a huff.

 _It's all part of the plan,_ her logical side dismissed with a mental wave. _Besides, we have plenty of spares in our inventory._

 _But this one was my favorite..._ _Also,_ w _as it really necessary to force me to cry by making me remember the Ram and Rom scene from the Conquest Ending?_

 _It was either that or spraying yourself in the face with a can of pepper spray. Now shut up and play your part like we discussed._

Biting back her urge to give a sigh, Vert instead put on the most distraught expression she could come up with as Noire finally found her voice again.

"Vert... what happened? You look... you look terrible."

 _You think?_ Logical Vert remarked with a roll of her eyes.

Ignoring the mental commentary, Vert crossed her arms and slowly turned away from her audience.

"I don't want to talk about it," she whispered out in a surprisingly convincing bitter tone.

Just as planned, Noire's curiosity was instantly piqued by this as she quickly forgot all about her previous annoyance.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her voice growing noticeably more gentle.

Vert had to hold back from sighing at her friend's predictable nature. Instead she simply dragged on the silence for a few more minutes before finally appearing to relent to Noire's questioning gaze.

"I... got into a fight with Histoire," Vert acted out in a guilt-ridden and bitter tone. "Things got... violent. Nepgear and Neptune got involved as well and..."

She trailed off as she let Noire's imagination come up with the rest.

Technically speaking, everything she had just said was true. She did get into a mild argument with Histoire about the boy and the Oracle had definitely gotten violent by throwing a cushion at her face. Even the part about Neptune and Nepgear being involved was completely accurate as they had been there for the entire fiasco. Of course, none of that had anything to do with her current pitiful image but Noire did not need to know that.

Just as Vert had hoped for, Noire looked at her with an extremely worried expression.

"I... I see. Was anyone else hurt?"

"No, I ran away before things escalated too much... If it's all the same to you, can we please not discuss this matter any further? I'd rather not think about it right now."

"I understand. Um... is there anything I can do to help though?"

 _You know, I feel rather bad about manipulating her like this,_ Vert thought to herself as she once again paused for dramatic effect in real life.

 _Well, desperate times call for desperate measures,_ her logical side bluntly expressed. _Just make it up to her by buying her a cake if you feel so guilty about it._

After making a silent apology to Noire and promising to buy her an entire bakery's worth of cakes later on, Vert once again spoke up.

"Can I... stay here until things calm down? I don't want to deal with anyone chasing me down if I went back home."

"Of course," Noire instantly agreed, completely falling for Vert's act. "You can stay as long as you like."

"Also... can you not tell anyone I'm here? I need some time to gather my thoughts."

"I'll be sure to keep your stay here an absolute secret."

"Thank you Noire. By the way, you wouldn't mind if I stayed in this room for the time being would you?"

"Not at all. I'd be happy to let you stay in Uni's- Wait, what?! Why would I ever let you stay inside Uni's room?!"

The somber atmosphere was instantly broken as Noire reverted back to her usual contrary self and glared at Vert.

 _Why would you ask to stay in Uni's room?!_ Logical Vert screamed out as her main personality began panicking.

 _I wanted a room with a decent PC and Uni's was the only choice!_ Vert tried to explain. _There's no way Noire would let us use her own computer and the ones in the rest of the building are too low-end to even run the original_ 4 Goddesses Online _!_

 _Are you serious?! We have a laptop in our inventory for crying out loud! Why do we need a desktop?!_

 _Just because you don't care about high-quality frame rates doesn't mean the rest of us don't!_

Logical Vert resisted the urge to kill her other self right then and there. _Just shut up and stall for time. I need to figure out a way to salvage this before your idiocy ruins everything._

"I... um... like the view that this room presents," Vert said, her acting skills completely failing her due to her panic. "I thought it'd let me recover from my traumatic fight more quickly."

"Ha! Like I'd ever fall for that!" Noire scoffed. "You just want to raid Uni's underwear drawer, don't you?"

Vert had to spend the next couple seconds engaging in a mental wrestling match as her perverted persona tried to take control of her body.

 _Alright, I think I figured out what to do,_ Logical Vert told her once the PerVert had been securely locked up in the darkest corners of their mind. _Just bribe Noire with this and we just might be able to pull this off._

After memorizing her lines, Vert gave a mental nod to herself and went back to confront the angry Tsundere.

"Please Noire, I just don't want to move around right now. If you let me stay here, I'll give you a premier pass for the upcoming Leanbox Anime Expo as a token of my appreciation."

"And why should I care about that?" Noire growled out as she crossed her arms.

"Because you'll get the chance to personally meet with the top cosplayers in all of Gamindustri. According to their blogs, some of them are even looking for a new costume designer at the gathering."

The response was faster than a spoonful of pudding disappearing into Neptune's mouth.

"Fine, but only until Uni gets back," Noire said as she tried and failed to mask her excitement. "You're sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag though. There's no way I'm letting you use Uni's bed."

"That's perfectly acceptable with me," Vert responded with a small smile.

"And don't you dare touch any of Uni's clothes!"

Vert had to keep from wincing as PerVert began to violently struggle against her bonds. "I won't touch any of Uni's clothing. You have my word."

Noire still seemed a bit suspicious but eventually passed it off with a small, satisfied nod.

Before the black-haired CPU could leave to fetch a sleeping bag for her guest, Vert asked the question that had been on her mind since arriving there.

"By the way, where exactly is Uni anyways?"

"Oh, she's off at the video game convention in Lowee," Noire casually answered. "That robot ninja guy's been bugging her to go with him for nearly a month and she eventually agreed to tag along."

"And you let her go off with him alone?" Vert asked in genuine surprise. Noire might rarely show it but she was surprisingly overprotective of her younger sister, especially when it came to boys (even if the male in question happened to be a robot).

"Uzume and B-Sha went along with them so there shouldn't be any problems." Noire paused to give a rather evil-looking smile before continuing. "Of course, I also sent K-Sha to keep tabs on the two of them as an added safety measure. I gave her permission to use lethal force if the robot tries anything funny."

Vert could not help but shudder as she suddenly felt an enormous amount of pity for poor Steamax.

Realizing there were no further questions, Noire turned around to finally leave. However, she only took a single step before she stopped to speak up again.

"I probably don't need to say this but don't cause any trouble, alright? The last thing I want to deal with is a bunch of ridiculous nonsense in my own home."

Vert gave a tired sigh as Noire walked away.

"Trust me, I know how that feels. I promise you I won't cause any trouble while I'm here."

* * *

 _Three days later..._

"Vert! What's the meaning of this?!"

With a scowl that could have rivaled Histoire's, Noire slammed open the door to Uni's room. What she saw there only served to enrage her further.

"VERT!" Noire yelled as she saw the emerald sea of empty Mountain Dew bottles littering the floor.

The CPU in question seemed completely unaware of her visitor due to the large headset covering her ears as she continued to play _4 Goddesses Online 2_ on Uni's computer. Knowing that trying to get her attention by shouting was a futile endeavor, Noire reluctantly waded through the discarded bottles to reach the source of her irritation.

"And she calls herself the 'normal' one of the group," Noire angrily mumbled as she slowly made her way to the computer desk.

Vert, meanwhile, was just about to finish her daily quest of hunting a dozen giant spiders when a sheet of paper was suddenly thrust in front of her face.

"Explain. Now," Noire angrily growled as she glared down at her.

With a sigh, Vert removed her headset and took a closer look at the paper that Noire was imperiously holding out.

"What is this?" she asked in confusion after seeing the gigantic list of numbers written there. "Are you asking me for help with your national budget?"

"This," Noire said through gritted teeth, "is the amount of credits you spent on all the take-out and snacks you ordered during your time here! Credits that you just so happened to charge towards _my_ Basilicom! Seriously, what have you got to say for yourself?!"

Vert found herself at a loss for words as she realized just how much she had actually spent. She knew she had a bad habit of indulging herself with food when she got upset and it clearly showed here.

"Um... I'll pay you back later?" Vert said with a weak smile.

Noire was not amused.

"I let you stay here as a favor and you repay me by trying to bankrupt my nation?!"

"Now, now, don't be dramatic Noire. It's only a couple hundred... billion... credits. If your nation couldn't handle a tiny financial strain like that, then it would have already collapsed ages ago."

"Why you little-!"

"Look, I'm sorry about this," Vert quickly interrupted with a sigh, not wanting to deal with one of Noire's outbursts at the moment. "I just happened to leave my wallet at home and I didn't want to bother you about it. I'll make sure to pay you back as soon as I return to Leanbox."

The apology seemed to cool down Noire's temper just a tiny bit.

"Hmph. And when exactly are you leaving anyways?" she asked as she crossed her arms.

"In a day or two. Hopefully, Histoire will have calmed down by then and we can finally talk things out."

Noire's expression visibly softened at being reminded of Vert's imaginary crisis. "I think you should wait a bit longer for that," she said, her anger fading away into worry. "Histoire called me yesterday to ask if you were here and she still sounded extremely mad. Don't worry though," she added as she saw the fearful look in Vert's eyes, "I told her that I didn't see you."

Vert let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you Noire. You're a real lifesaver."

Noire gave a small smile before her expression turned serious again. "By the way, I also got a call from some weird guy who claimed to be your brother of all things. Do you have any idea what's going on with that?"

Vert paled slightly at this but otherwise managed to keep her face neutral.

"It's probably Neptune trying to prank me for getting into a fight with Histoire," she quickly dismissed.

"Huh. Well, I figured it was something like that so I simply hung up. Still, it was rather strange just how worried he sounded when he asked about you."

Vert actually felt a small amount of guilt upon hearing that. As bad as the kid was, he did seem rather attached to her and making him needlessly worry just felt wrong to her. However, she was still not mentally prepared to deal with him just yet and so she simply passed it off with another sigh. "Neptune most likely told the guy to keep the call going as long as possible so he probably had to get creative. Honestly, leave it to her to come up with a prank idea like that."

"That does sound like something she would do," Noire quickly agreed, always eager to criticize her (best?) friend. "When will she stop behaving like a child and act a little bit more like me?"

"Like an angry Tsundere?" Vert teased with a smile.

Noire immediately started scowling again as she turned around and began walking away.

"I expect my money back no later than one week from now," she demanded as she reached the door. "And for Celestia's sake, clean up the room!"

With that, Noire stormed out while slamming the door shut behind her.

This outburst finally alerted Vert to the mass of empty soda bottles around her which caused her to give a sheepish grin. "Ah... I suppose I really should clean this place up. Well, after I finish this quest anyways."

Turning back around, she put on her headset again and focused back on her game.

As she ran across the fields looking for more spiders to kill, Vert noted just how silent her guild was. Normally, she would have been happily chatting with her guild members while doing these daily quests but most of them were apparently still a bit peeved at her for the failed raid several days ago. Everyone had accepted the public apology she had made but it seemed it would still be a while before everyone fully forgave her.

"I can't even escape my troubles inside my favorite game," Vert sadly muttered as she continued her solitary trek.

Her musings were suddenly interrupted however when a message from Kotori appeared in her inbox. While the Battle Mage had been particularly annoyed with her since the raid incident, she still completed her duties as one of the guild's advisors by sending her periodic updates on important information.

After finding a safe area to idle in, Vert opened up the message expecting to see an extensive list of guild spendings and required materials. Much to her surprise though, only three short sentences were written on it.

 **Glasses-man sent out a summon for you and the Gary-Stu. Central Town Gathering Hall, 4th floor, Room 401. Password is 'Hamburger'.**

Vert raised an eyebrow at the strange password as she sent a reply to Kotori telling her to deal with any important guild matters while she was gone. As much as she would have loved to simply ignore her rival guild leader, she was extremely curious as to why he would suddenly call a group meeting between all three of them.

With a sigh, Vert abandoned her current quest and teleported back to town as she prepared to meet up with her two least favorite people in the gaming world.

* * *

"Alright, you better have a good reason for dragging me out here."

For a gathering between three of the most powerful players in _4GO2,_ their meeting ground was surprisingly plain. The small, wooden room only had a single conference desk in the center and a few dozen plant doodads decorating the sides. At the far end of the room, a glowing portal could be seen on the wall in place of a door.

At the moment, Vert was standing next to the portal she had just entered from while the other two leaders were seated on opposite sides of the rectangular desk. As per usual, all of them had their silhouette feature activated to make sure that their stats and equipment were hidden from view. This had the unfortunate side-effect of making them all look like generic NPCs but Vert personally preferred it over seeing her rivals' faces.

"Well?" Vert asked as she used her 'cross your arms in annoyance' gesture. "What could be so important that you had to call me in the middle of-?"

" _The first wing of the raid was just cleared."_

Vert immediately narrowed her eyes at the silhouette wearing a pair of glasses. Shiroe, leader of **LogHorizon** and first conqueror of the infamous Lich Queen, calmly stared back at her with his hands folded in front of his currently nondescript face. Even with all of his equipment being concealed, his trademark glasses were still somehow gleaming with its usual sinister light.

"Let me guess, you guys teamed up to clear it and now you want to gloat," Vert said in an unimpressed voice.

" _Hell no,"_ the third figure drawled out as he used what Vert liked to call the 'lean back in your chair while propping up your feet on the table like an asshole' gesture. _"I'm fine with using his lackeys as my meat-shield in our guild wars but there's no way I'd share my raid-winning glories with him."_

While Vert disliked Shiroe in a professional, business sense, she outright hated her other rival. Kirito, leader of **SwordArt** and the self-proclaimed strongest player in the game, was one of the few people that Vert would not have minded kicking in front of an oncoming train. He was annoying, arrogant, and an overall insufferable person. The thing that really annoyed Vert, however, was the hoard of players who flocked to him and worshiped the ground he walked on in the hopes of leeching off on his fame and glory. The worst of them were his so-called 'harem members' who mindlessly followed him around everywhere and did all of his bidding like the crazy fangirls that they were.

Thankfully, Kirito was alone at the moment but that still did not mean he was any less of a detestable jerk.

" _By the way, I heard you tried and failed the raid several days ago,"_ he remarked in a taunting voice. _"Did you really think you and your army of noobs could have beaten something that even I had trouble with? Pfft. You must be a lot dumber than you look."_

Vert did her best to ignore the murderous rage building up inside her and instead turned to her less-hated rival. "If none of us completed the raid, then who did?"

Shiroe did not move as he brought up a large holographic screen in front of him.

" **FGL**?" Vert read aloud in confusion as the screen moved over to the head of the table for everyone to see. "I've never heard of that guild before. Are they new?"

" _They're apparently several years old,"_ Shiroe calmly explained. _"Most of the basic information about them is on the screen but the point I want to bring attention to is the fact that they're apparently a social guild."_

Vert found herself getting more and more confused by all of this. How exactly did a social guild manage to take on and accomplish what the three biggest raid guilds in the server failed to do?

" _Who's the head-honcho?"_ Kirito asked from the side, his curiosity piqued as well.

The image on the screen changed to reveal a character profile featuring a hooded figure wearing a dark blue robe and cloak. In his hand, he carried a staff with a strange sundial-like contraption at the top.

" _He goes by the name Amadeus,"_ Shiroe narrated as the other two stared intently at the screen. _"He's currently at max level and is fully geared with Legendary-rank equipment. Unfortunately, that was the extent of the information I was able to dig up on such short notice... well, other than the fact that he's also a Chrono-mage."_

" _Chrono-mage?"_ Kirito repeated as he let out an impressed whistle. _"Haven't seen one of those since lovely little Kurumi left your guild to be a free-lancer."_

Vert could not help but be impressed as well. Chrono-mages were an extremely rare class to find at the highest levels due to their insanely high learning curve as well as the micro-intensive nature of their skills. As Kirito had said, there had only been one level-capped Chrono-mage during the previous expansion and no one had heard anything noteworthy about her since her brief stay in **LogHorizon**.

While Kirito paused to mull over this new information, Vert turned to eye Shiroe with suspicion.

"And why exactly are you telling us all of this? You're not the type to freely hand out information to others without asking for something in return."

Shiroe let out an amused laugh as he used the 'adjust your glasses' gesture. _"It seems you catch on rather quick. Well, to put it simply, I require your cooperation to root out any potential moles we might have within our ranks."_

" _Moles?"_ Kirito asked. _"You mean those animals that like to pop out of holes?"_

Both Shiroe and Vert used their 'roll your eyes' gesture at this though neither could see it.

"He's talking about spies," Vert explained with a sigh. "It's obvious someone must be leaking information over to this Amadeus person."

As she said this, Vert realized why Shiroe had wanted to meet with the two of them in the first place. Information about the new raid had been highly classified up to this point and had only been available to the highest level guilds. In fact, Vert had to call in every favor she had just to get a small list of some of the bosses' attack patterns from the game developers. Knowing her rivals, the other two guild leaders most likely had done something equally drastic to obtain information about the raid as well. If this new guild completed the raid, then it stood to reason that they had obtained detailed data about the bosses somehow beforehand. Such a small and unknown guild would not have had the funds or connections to gain this intel the same way the larger guilds did so the most likely explanation for their sudden success was that they had one or more spies working for them.

" _We need to find these leaks and stop them before we lose too much cred,"_ Shiroe spelled out for their rather dull third member. _"People might pass off this recent success as just a fluke but if it continues to occur, we'll start losing our reputation as well as potential future guild members. Not only that but the developers just announced that the first clear bonus for the upcoming wing will be a grand total of 10 million gold for the guild. And as far as I can tell, none of us wants that kind of money falling into some unknown's hand."_

Vert could not help but silently agree. Better to see that money fall into the hands of an enemy they knew about rather than one they did not.

" _Do we really have to waste our time with this?"_ Kirito whined in annoyance after a brief silence. _"How do we even know if there really is a spy?What if this_ **FGL** _guild just got really lucky and beat the current raid wing blindly?"_

" _I've considered that possibility as well but it's statistically improbable,"_ Shiroe countered. _"There's yet to be an uploaded video about their successful clear but I think we can all agree that a blind run is practically impossible with the current raid's difficulty. In fact, even I wouldn't be able to coordinate such a large number of players through all of the raid's mechanics without prior knowledge."_

Kirito still sounded unconvinced. _"Okay, then what if this Amadeus guy is just a wannabe bad-ass trying to copy me and just soloed the entire raid?"_

" _How many times do I have to tell you,"_ Shiroe said with an exasperated groan. _"No one can solo a raid."_

" _I did,"_ Kirito replied smugly.

" _Yes, and you got banned for an entire month afterwards for hacking the game."_

While the two continued on with their pointless bickering, Vert was busy keeping silent as she tried to put down the sudden worrying thought swirling around in her head. The moment Kirito had mentioned someone soloing a raid, Vert's mind immediately went to a certain boy who was crazy and foolhardy enough to try something like that and somehow come out alive just to mess with everyone's expectations.

"Pardon me for interrupting your couple's spat but I have a question that needs answering," Vert suddenly said as she faced her glasses-wearing rival. "Is this Amadeus person a new player? You told us that he's the current leader of **FGL,** but was he the actual founder or did he simply gain that position recently?"

Shiroe set his character to use the 'calculating stare' gesture as he apparently went over to look through his list of information in real life. After a few seconds, he seemed to come up with an answer.

" _As far as I can tell, he's the only one who's been the leader for that guild. Is there any particular reason your asking me for this?"_

Vert tried not to let out a sigh of relief as she replied in an even voice. "Just curious. I simply wanted to know more about our potential information thief."

Shiroe did not seem to fully believe her excuse but he passed it off with a 'dismissive wave' gesture. _"Of course. Anyways, I suggest we adjourn our round table meeting for now. And yes,"_ he quickly added before Kirito could speak, _"I know perfectly well that this table is a rectangle. It's simply a figure of speech."_

" _Your mom's a figure of speech,"_ Kirito said with a laugh.

Both Vert and Shiroe ignored him as they faced each other.

" _I shall leave you to your own devices to root out any potential leaks on your end,"_ Shiroe told her as he got up and headed towards the exit portal. _"However, I will say this: If there really is a spy, then they will definitely be within your inner circle. Be careful of who you trust."_

With those ominous last words, he left the room. Unfortunately, this left Vert alone with her absolute, most hated person in the entire universe (and possibly beyond).

" _So..."_ Kirito called out in what he probably believed to be a charming voice (it came out sounding more like a black market merchant trying to attract a customer). _"You wanna come over to my place later tonight? I'm going to be showing off my sword collection to my girls and I wouldn't mind having a foxy lady like you th-"_

Vert was already in the exit portal before the game could even register her character's movement.

* * *

Despite Shiroe's warning, Vert decided that she needed at least one person at her side while conducting her investigation. After thinking over her options, she eventually chose to go with Kotori. Despite her sharp tongue and moodiness, she was also the least likely suspect to be a spy due to her strong sense of responsibility and duty. In a way, the fiery young girl reminded Vert a lot of Noire. She was rather hard to get along with due to her contrary attitude but when things got rough you could always depend on her to get the job done.

After discretely making her way into her guild hall, Vert approached Kotori and dragged her into a private chat room to tell her about the recent developments.

" _Ugh, what do you want?"_ the irritated Battle Mage huffed in a typical Tsundere manner (Vert had to seriously wonder if the girl was actually Noire's secret younger sister).

Pushing back the terrifying yet amusing thought of Lastation being home to three Tsunderes, Vert focused back on the matter at hand. "Kotori, have you noticed anyone acting strangely recently?"

" _Other than you abandoning us to that giant alpaca? No, not really."_

Vert winced at her guild mate's sharp tone but pressed on.

"Again, I apologize for that but we have more important matters to deal with right now. I need you to listen carefully to what I have to say and make sure to keep it a secret from everyone else."

Before the red-headed Battle Mage could interrupt her, Vert quickly began recounting the events at the guild leaders' meeting. The explanation took several minutes to get through but by the end of it, Kotori's irritated expression had thankfully been replaced with a thoughtful one instead.

" _Alright, I'll see what I can do,"_ she said with a simple nod gesture. _"I'll investigate this_ **FGL** _guild further and see if I can get some more info on their raid-clearing party. I'll also make sure to keep an eye out for any further suspicious activity within our guild."_

"Thank you Kotori," Vert said with a relieved sigh. "You don't know how much it means to me to have someone to rely on at a time like this."

Kotori gave an embarrassed scoff upon hearing this. _"D... Don't take this the wrong way! I'm not doing this for you! I'm just... um... doing this for the guild! Yeah, the guild!"_

Vert could not help but smile in the real world. Yep, definitely a Tsundere.

" _A... Anyways,"_ Kotori quickly said with a forced cough, _"this kind of covert investigation will take a bit of time to complete so don't expect any results until a week at the least. Now, is that all you needed me to do or am I free to go?"_

"Ah, there's one more matter I want you to look into," Vert said, her tone becoming serious. "I need you to find whatever information you can about this Amadeus person. It's hard to explain but I'm getting a really bad feeling about this guild leader. Someone who can take members of a social guild and successfully lead them through an end-game raid, even if he might have had stolen information to aid him, is not a player to be taken lightly."

Kotori listened to all of this in grim silence before giving a short nod in response. As the Battle Mage exited the private room to no doubt call up her various informants, Vert could not help but feel that her troubles in the game were only just beginning.

"Great... now I have something to worry about even in the game world," Vert muttered to herself as she finally logged off for the day.

* * *

Two days later and Vert was feeling a whole lot happier.

Things had progressed fairly normally in both the real world and the game world following that meeting and Vert had been enjoying every single moment of it. Between finishing up her daily MMO quests, watching a few movies, and stuffing her face with all the ice cream and bonbons she could order (which she was definitely going to pay back Noire for... eventually), the blonde goddess was truly enjoying her vacation to its fullest.

As such, it was in high spirits that Vert walked out of Uni's room that day as she decided to coax Noire into going to a massage parlor with her. Obviously, she intended to get the Tsundere goddess to pay for it but she figured her friend could use a little time off to relax as well.

Making her way into Noire's office, Vert was unsurprised to see the other CPU at her desk filling out a stack of paperwork.

"I think it's time you went outside for a bit," Vert said in a cheerful voice as she made her way next to the desk. "You're going to grow all wrinkled and moldy if you stay inside here for so long."

"Not now. I'm busy," Noire answered distractedly.

Vert gave a theatrical sigh as she crossed her arms and faced her friend with a disappointed look. "Come on Noire. It's been forever since we had a regular girl's day out. We can go shopping, watch a movie, get a massage, and maybe even pick up a few cute guys along the way."

"Not interested."

Vert continued to look at Noire with a disappointed look before a playful grin appeared on her face.

"Ah, I forgot. You swing the other way. My apologies. I suppose we can go find a cute girl for you instead."

This finally did the trick in getting Noire's attention as she dropped her pen and looked up at Vert with a rapidly reddening face.

"What?! I... You... I'm not into girls!" Noire screamed out in an extremely flustered manner.

Vert's smile only widened. "Still in the closet I see. It's not good to hold these things in Noire. Besides, everyone already knows that you have a crush on Neptune."

"No I don't! That's just a stupid lie the internet made up!"

"Are you sure? I seem to recall NepxNoire being the number one pairing in all of-"

"NO! I don't swing that way! I like guys!"

"Really now?" Vert said, her grin definitely bearing a striking resemblance to Sync at this point. "How strange that I've never seen you within any male presence other than your guards."

"I... I had that secretary guy in my game!"

"Spin-off universes don't count."

Noire's head looked like a boiling teapot as she struggled to come up with a response. Failing to do so, she quickly tried to turn the tables on Vert instead. "What about you?! You're always shoving Nepgear's face into your boobs! And... and... you spend a lot of time with Blanc! I'm sure I've seen plenty of stories about the two of you being in a relationship!"

Vert's smile did not falter a bit. "Ah, that's where we differ my dear Noire. You see, unlike you, I make it very clear that I have a fondness for men. Or at least Yaoi. Either way, people know that I am not against the idea of spending time with the male gender. You, on the other hand, only interact with other girls and never give any indication that you're even aware of the opposite sex. In fact, even Uni shows more attraction towards males than you, even if they're usually robots."

Noire opened and closed her mouth repeatedly as she tried and failed to come up with a response to this. The look on her face could only be described as priceless as Vert had to hold back from laughing out loud in case she sent the flustered CPU over the edge.

After a couple more seconds, Vert decided she had teased her friend enough for the day and tried to make an apology to defuse the volatile situation. Before she could do so, however, a completely unexpected voice suddenly spoke up from behind her.

"Ha, I knew you were hiding out here. Looks like Nepgear owes me another cake."

All the joy and amusement that Vert had been feeling up to now seemed to melt away like snow under the summer sun as she realized that her time of reckoning had come at last. Hardly daring to breathe, Vert slowly turned around to see none other than Sync smiling back up at her.

"I kind of guessed you were here after the phone call but decided you probably wanted to be left alone," he casually said, seemingly ignoring the two gaping goddesses staring at him. "Still, you could have at least checked in a few times to manage the nation. I've filled in for you as best as I could but there's still quite a number of items that needed to be verified by you personally."

"Who is this?" Noire suddenly asked, still too flustered from Vert's prior teasing to properly piece together what was going on. "Is he your new secretary or something?"

Vert found herself unable to answer as she stood in shock at the unexpectedness of the entire situation. She knew she was going to have to deal with this meeting eventually but she had expected to at least have a few more days to herself before then.

Before she could figure out what to say though, Sync switched his glance over to Noire with an amused smile.

"I suppose secretary is an accurate enough description considering the amount of work I've had to get through," he said with a brief laugh. "As for you, I suppose you're Noire, the CPU of Lastation?"

Noire did not answer as she instead seem to look at him with a calculating gaze as if measuring him up. After a few seconds, a rather vindictive smile briefly appeared on her face as she glanced back at Vert.

The moment Vert saw that smile, she could practically foresee the unfortunate events that were going to play out from there. Sadly, she found herself unable to move or speak due to her current shock as Noire foolishly approached Sync.

"I suppose you'll do," Noire said in an critical voice. "The green coat is a bit stand-offish and your bangs could be trimmed a bit but other than that, you're not a bad choice."

Before Sync or Vert could react, Noire suddenly moved forward and latched onto the boy's arm. Funnily enough, the gesture looked more like the black-haired goddess was claiming ownership of him rather than anything romantic.

"I hereby declare you to be my temporary boyfriend," Noire proudly said as she held onto Sync's arm like some kind of designer purse she had just bought. With a smug look on her face, she turned to face Vert with a wide smile. "Ha! What do you have to say to that Vert? I told you I'm totally straight! I'm the first one out of all of us to even have a boyfriend!"

Vert stayed silent for a long, long time as she looked between her friend's triumphant expression and the slowly growing grin on Sync's face. Knowing that it was far too late to do anything for her, Vert just gave a sigh as she spoke up in a sincerely apologetic voice.

"I'm sorry Noire. I truly am."

Noire had just enough time to look confused at Vert's reaction before Sync suddenly spoke up.

"I see what's going on here," he said with his trademark grin. "You don't have to force yourself with this charade Noire. I know this is a bit of a shocking news for me but I can take it. I understand that my sis set the two of us up for an arranged marriage."

"What?" Noire uttered in a dumbfounded voice as she swiveled her head around to face Sync. Looking more and more amused by all of this, he moved in slightly closer to her as he continued speaking.

"I have to say, I've never really been a fan of girls with twintails but I suppose you're not the worst person a guy could end up with in an arranged relationship. Still, it would have been nice if sis gave me a little warning before coming over here and setting up all of this. I would have liked to come up with some of our wedding details and future honeymoon plans."

Before either CPUs could react, he pressed himself next to Noire so that he was practically leaning against her. This also had the added effect of trapping their interlocked arms against their sides so that Noire could not escape.

"Well, no need to keep such happy news to ourselves! Let's head over to the Lastation TV station and tell the entire world about our engagement!"

Noire managed to make one last look of shock and utter confusion before Sync promptly teleported the two of them out of the room.

Silence fell across the office as Vert stayed frozen in place while trying to figure out what to do. A part of her wanted to immediately head out and try to help Noire no matter the cost. The Lastation CPU had helped her out a lot over the past few days (even if she had been tricked to do so) and Vert felt she owed it to her to go to her rescue.

On the flip side, however, there was the fact that Sync had most likely been serious about broadcasting his fake engagement story to the entire world. If that was the case, then there was no doubt that Noire's fans would go up in arms as soon as they heard the news. It was a rather well-known fact that the Tsundere goddess' fans were among the most vicious and fanatical people in the entire world and any hostile engagements with them were bound to end badly. The last time her fans had gotten riled up – when Noire had to cancel her appearance on some famous Lastation talk show – they had started a week-long riot that had spread to every corner of Gamindustri and had nearly brought about the start of another Console War. It was without any exaggeration to say that Vert was absolutely terrified of those crazy zealots.

Vert did not know how long she stood there trying to reach a decision. Her uncertainty seemed to stretch on for all of eternity as she continuously went back and forth between her desire to save her friend and the need to stay alive to continue protecting her own nation. As far as she could tell, these two choices were practically mutually exclusive at this point.

As it was, her decision was eventually made for her when a sudden noise from outside caught her attention. With a fearful look, she slowly went over to the large window behind her and looked out. What greeted her eyes could only be described as complete and utter chaos.

Sync had apparently just announced his engagement over live television and now Noire's fans were swarming through the streets of Lastation as they cried and raged in various destructive ways. Cars and various other transports were toppled over, multiple buildings were set on fire, and the poor guards that tried to resist them were mauled like cattle. In short, the city (and probably all of Lastation) was consumed by a madness that even Kurome might have called overkill.

Looking away from the chaos outside, Vert briefly stepped into her mental landscape as she addressed her other personas.

" _So... who's up for an extended vacation in Lowee?"_

All of the Verts raised their hands in unison.


	6. The Fandom Menace

**Ch 6: The Fandom Menace**

On the frigid tundras of the northern Lowee/Lastation border, a figure wearing a set of heavy winter clothing walked up to one of the frozen hills and began scanning the area as if looking for anything out of the ordinary. Funnily enough, this strange observer was probably the most eye-catching thing in the area due to his wildly decorated clothing and accessories. Plastered all across his parka and goggles were numerous photoshopped pictures of Noire in various seductive poses that would have probably made the real CPU let out her infamous scream if she ever saw them. As if this was not enough to prove his identity as one of Noire's fans, the person also had a large body pillow of Black Heart strapped to his back like some kind of camping pack.

"Any sign of Noire or the Waifu Thief out there?"

As the fan continued to survey the area, a second figure walked up to the icy hill and addressed his presumable partner. The newcomer was obviously a fan as well - if the large "Noire is best waifu!" emblazoned on his ski hat was anything to go by - but he seemed to be slightly less fanatical about it as he only had a single picture of Noire in a magical girl outfit stitched across the shoulder of his jacket.

After looking across the craggy ice field once more, the first fan shook his head before replying in an annoyed tone.

"Nothing out there except snow and ice. Seriously, how do those loli-loving freaks in Lowee live in a place like this? It's got to be ten degrees below freezing out here!"

The second fan crossed his arms and seemed to roll his eyes (though his opaque goggles made it hard to say for sure). "Ah, quit your complaining. At least we weren't assigned to Planeptune for the upcoming invasion. Don't know about you but I'm definitely glad I don't have to tangle with either of the Nep sisters on the battlefield."

"Ugh. I'd gladly take on a CPU than freeze my ass off up here," the fan with the body pillow muttered as he rubbed his gloved hands together in a futile attempt to warm them.

"Careful what you wish for. If Blanc were to head out here, I'd doubt she'd leave any prisoners."

The thought of Blanc squashing them with her hammer until they were as flat as her chest finally put an end to the first fan's complaints as he irritably stuffed his hands into his parka's pockets and silently stared out at the frozen wasteland.

A few minutes passed by in silence before he spoke up again.

"By the way, do we even know anything about that blond shota other than what he looks like? Everyone just seems to refer to him as the 'Waifu Thief' and nothing else."

His partner gave a slightly annoyed grunt before answering. "The broadcast was cut off before the kid had a chance to properly introduce himself. If our members at the TV station had enough sense to at least learn our enemy's identity before starting their rampage, we wouldn't have to hunt him using only his image as reference."

The body pillow-carrying fan became quiet for a few seconds as he brought his hand up to his chin in a thoughtful manner.

"Hmm... You know, I've been thinking about this ever since I saw him but... don't you think the Waifu Thief kinda looks like Vert?"

"You've got be joking," the second fan scoffed. "Are you trying to say that he's actually Vert's brother?"

"Well, just look at him. Same hair color. Same eye color. Heck, he even wears a giant _green_ coat! If that doesn't scream Leanbox, I don't know what does!"

"Now you're just stereotyping. Not all blond people who wear green clothes are from Leanbox, you moron. Besides, do you really think Vert of all people would remain quiet if she ended up with a brother? She would have freaked out and probably nuked her own nation to get rid of him."

The first fan thought about this for a brief second before giving a shrug.

"Yeah, I see your point. There's no way Vert would ever tolerate having a younger brother. Still, I can't help but think that the brat's somehow related to her. Hmm... Maybe he's her secret love child or something? Perhaps she had a fling with one of the waiters at those butler cafes she likes to visit and- Wait, did you hear something?"

The two fans immediately snapped to attention as they began looking around the seemingly empty wasteland.

"This better not be your idea of a prank," the second fan growled when nothing caught his eye.

"No, I'm serious. I thought I heard some kind of choking sound from around those rocks just now. Hold on, I'm gonna go down and see if there's anything there."

Leaving his irate partner behind, the body pillow-carrying fan made his way down the frozen hill and began to cautiously make his way over to the large gathering of ice-covered boulders nearby. Once there, the fan began to carefully search around the rocks for any sign of a possible intruder. After several tense minutes, he eventually gave a shrug and made his way back up to the hill.

"Guess I was just hearing things," he told his unimpressed partner. "Nothing down there except a bunch of rocks and a cardboard box."

Funnily enough, the second fan did not seem to find anything strange about this comment and even added in his own two-cents. "I swear those damn boxes are everywhere," he said in a serious tone. "Apparently one of them was also at the Lastation Basilicom when our initial forces made their way there. It blocked off the way into the main hall for nearly half an hour before it finally shuffled along and got out of the way."

"Heh, those silly boxes. Always showing up at the strangest times with no explanation whatsoever."

With that interesting conversation out of the way, the two fans became silent once more. After a couple more minutes, the second fan looked at his wristwatch and spoke up.

"Looks like our shift's almost done. Let's start heading back to base and get something to eat."

"About time! I was about to become completely frozen out here!" As he said this, a mischievous grin suddenly appeared on the first fan's face as he turned to face his partner. "Hey, _do you want to build a snow-_ "

"Finish that sentence and I swear to Noire that I'll kill you with your own body pillow."

The first fan wisely shut himself up as he followed after his song-hating partner and left their lookout hill.

As the fans walked off into the distance, the cardboard box from before suddenly shuffled forward and seemed to peek up from the pile of rocks it had been hiding in. After seeing that the coast was clear, the box suddenly let out a sigh before speaking up in a tired yet familiar voice.

"Some vacation this is turning out to be..."

* * *

While it was definitely not the worst situation Vert had ever been in, her current predicament definitely made her top ten list. And considering that the lowest contender on that list happened to be the time _4 Goddesses Online_ experienced a server crash right before she obtained her first Legendary rank item, it said a lot about just how horrible her situation was.

Simply escaping from Noire's Basilicom had been a journey and a half as the fans had invaded the building soon after Vert had decided to escape to Lowee. Thankfully, she remembered a handy trick she picked up from a bossy old man and quickly managed to hide herself in a cardboard box that was lying around Noire's office. With the help of her state-of-the-art stealth device, Vert managed to slowly make her way past the fans and out into the devastated ruins of the city.

After what felt like days to her, Vert finally managed to sneak into Lowee where she was now trying her hardest not to freeze to death as she shuffled along underneath her trusty box.

"W...W...Why did I have to g... get on Histoire's b... b... bad side at a time like this?" Vert muttered to herself with chattering teeth as the temperature around her seemed to drop lower by the second. "I...It w...would have been s...so much nicer to sneak into P... P... Planeptune instead."

Unlike the inhabitants of Lowee (or a certain ice princess) the cold did bother Vert quite a bit. Considering the temperate-to-tropical climate of Leanbox, the arctic conditions of Gamindustri's northern frontier felt especially unforgiving towards the poor CPU. In fact, if it had not been for the share energy protecting her, Vert was sure she would have already transformed into a goddess-sized Popsicle by now.

As she continued her slow and arduous journey, Vert briefly considered just transforming and flying towards Lowee's Basilicom. Unfortunately, there was still the risk that there were more of Noire's fans in the area, especially considering that the two fans had mentioned having a base nearby. Plus, her prior dealings with Noire's fans during the previous uprising had taught her all too well just how skilled the fans were at shooting down flying targets. No, the safest option for her at the moment was to simply continue on in her cardboard box until she reached a Lowee settlement.

"T... That boy is as g...g...good as dead when I get b...back home," Vert muttered darkly as she continued to trudge across the seemingly endless blanket of ice and snow. "T...This ridiculousness has g...gone on long enough and I'm sure Ch...Chika would be happy to- oh, wait... She got transformed into a duck... Argh! I c...can't even f...fantasize about getting r...revenge without that b...b...boy ruining everything!"

Vert's rant came to a quick close as the sound of footsteps was suddenly heard nearby. Reacting quickly, she crouched down and tried to remain as still as possible despite her cold-induced shivering. Sadly, she could not see who was approaching her as the newcomer was on the opposite side of the little hole that she used to peek outside the box with. As such, all she could do was simply wait with bated breath as she hoped the newcomer would simply pass her by like the rest of the fans.

Much to her dismay, the footsteps continued towards her before stopping right in front of the box. For a while, nothing could be heard outside as Vert silently prayed to RNGesus that the person would simply leave. Sadly, her prayers went completely unheeded as the cardboard box was suddenly grabbed and lifted off of Vert before she could do anything.

Vert found herself paralyzed in fear as she continued to remain in her crouched position. Just when she was sure that she was going to be mauled by a rabid fan or knocked out to be taken to an interrogation chamber, a puzzled yet familiar voice spoke up behind her.

"Vert? What are you doing here? And why were you hiding in a cardboard box? I thought that was just one of K-Sha's strange little quirks."

Hardly daring to believe her luck, Vert slowly turned her head to find none other than an extremely confused-looking C-Sha staring back down at her.

For a while, neither person moved as they simply continued to stare at each other in an increasingly awkward atmosphere. The stillness was abruptly broken, however, when Vert suddenly leaped up to hug the fashionable Hunter which caused her to drop the cardboard box in surprise.

"Wha-?! Vert, what are you doing?!"

Vert did not answer as she simply continued to hold onto the struggling C-Sha with perhaps a little too much affection. After spending goddess-knows-how-long in hostile territory with only an army of deranged fans and a box to keep her company, Vert was practically overcome with joy and relief at finally seeing a friendly face again. As it was however, their awkward embrace inadvertently resulted in a rather... bouncy... display as the two most buxom women in all of Gamindustri continued to press and squirm against each other. In fact, the pure amount of fanservice generated by them was so strong that every male figure within a hundred mile radius suddenly found themselves knocked out cold by a strange case of severe nosebleeds.

"W...What's wrong with you Vert?! Let go of me this instant!"

It took several more minutes before this impressive display of Yuri on ice came to an end as Vert finally regained control of her emotions.

"Ah... I... um... apologize for my actions just now," Vert said in a sheepish voice as she let go of an understandably shaken C-Sha. "I suppose I was just a bit too happy about finally seeing someone other than one of those crazy fans."

Perhaps it was due to her experience as being the leader of her own wacky group of misfits but C-Sha recovered from her shock with surprising speed and took in all of this strangeness in stride.

"I...It's alright," C-Sha eventually dismissed as she readjusted her trademark beret. "Just... try to keep your clinginess to a minimum from now on. I just crafted this new outfit and I don't want to get it wrinkled too much."

Funnily enough, her current outfit looked no different from her usual blue attire but Vert knew better than to speak out about it. The last time she had accidentally made a comment about all of C-Sha's clothes looking identical, the Gold Third leader had spent several hours lecturing her about the thousands of different types of monster leather that made up her supposedly different outfits.

"So," C-Sha continued, thankfully interrupting Vert's memories about that mind-numbing fashion discussion, "how exactly did someone like you end up all the way up here?"

"It's... a long story," the CPU replied in an extremely world-weary tone. Just as she was about to start recounting her little misadventure though, Vert suddenly remembered the conversation between the two fans she had overheard and immediately turned serious again. "Actually, that's not what's important right now. I managed to learn that the fans are preparing some kind of invasion against Planeptune. We need to warn Histoire and Blanc about this right away."

Much to her surprise, C-Sha did not seem the slightest bit alarmed by the news and simply let out a tired sigh.

"We already know," the Gold Third leader explained to the puzzled goddess. "The fans have been massing on the Planeptune border for quite some time now. Histoire's already prepared her forces but its hard to say whether they can hold back the sheer amount of fans that have gathered there. Even with Neptune and Nepgear acting as back-up, things are looking really dicey down there. As for me, Blanny wanted me to scope out the northern border in case the fans were making plans to invade Lowee as well. As far as I can tell though, they're not doing much up here other than keeping an eye on the area."

Hearing all of this, Vert could not help but let out a sigh of her own as she realized just how large of a mess the accursed boy had created. Based on what she knew, it was highly unlikely he had intended for things to get this far out of hand but the fact remained that he had practically created the biggest disaster in recent years since the Kurome incident.

"I need to go see Blanc," Vert eventually said. "Discussing all of this in the snow isn't going to do us any good. At the very least, perhaps I can help her plan a counteroffensive against the fans or something of the sort."

C-Sha apparently agreed as she gave a curt nod.

"Alright. I need to go report my findings to Blanny anyways. There's a small town just a few miles west of here. We can catch an airship from there to the capital."

Vert silently nodded as she allowed C-Sha to lead the way. Just as they were about to head out, however, C-Sha suddenly stopped to pick up the cardboard box that she had dropped earlier.

"By the way, what should I do with this?"

The words had hardly left her mouth before Vert had swiftly snatched the cardboard box from her hands and carefully deposited it into her inventory.

"What?" Vert said with a shrug in answer to C-Sha's surprised look. "I can't just abandon Mr. Box out here in the cold after everything he's done for me. He's practically family at this point."

C-Sha continued to stare at the CPU for a few more seconds before finally shaking her head and turning away.

"I think I'm starting to see why Blanny doesn't want you hanging around the twins..."

* * *

All in all, the trip to Lowee's capital was fairly uneventful... relatively speaking.

When the buxom duo arrived at the airport, they found to their dismay that the town's only airship pilot had been hospitalized shortly before they had arrived. He – along with every other male occupant in the small Lowee settlement – was suffering from massive blood loss from a mysterious case of nosebleeds and needed several hours to recover.

Unaware of their role in this setback, C-Sha and Vert simply blamed their bad luck and began looking around for some way to pass the time. After a bit of wandering, the two of them eventually stumbled across a small clothing store where C-Sha decided to generously buy Vert some proper winter clothing. Unfortunately, this ended up taking far longer than necessary as the fashion-obsessed Gold Third member spent the entire afternoon stuffing Vert into literally every article of clothing in the store. By the time Vert walked out of the place with a brand-new green parka and scarf (which she might have appreciated more if her legs were not feeling like jelly from all the modeling she had been forced to do) the sky was already dark and the airport was operating once again.

Thankfully for Vert, the rest of their trip was a much more enjoyable experience. After booking a flight to the capital and climbing aboard the blimp-like airship, the CPU had quickly nodded off as the exhaustion from all her stealth adventuring finally caught up to her. Knowing that things would undoubtedly get lively as soon as they reached their destination, C-Sha also opted to get some rest as well.

One long airship ride later, the duo arrived at the picturesque winter wonderland that was Lowee's main city. Despite the fan crisis taking place just one nation over, the large snowy city looked exactly the same as ever as C-Sha and a sleepy-eyed Vert made their way out of the airship and into the ever-crowded airport. Thankfully, the local F-Zero taxi service was available even in the early hours of the morning and the two of them were able to hail one of the cabs that were milling around the area. One turbo-boosted taxi ride later, the two of them found themselves standing before the familiar sight of Blanc's Basilicom.

"Hmm... guess we arrived earlier than I expected," C-Sha commented as she took a glance at the nearby Clock Tower with the dancing Skull Kid on top of it. Barely keeping her eyes open, Vert tiredly followed her companion's gaze and saw that it was barely past five in the morning.

"Blanny's probably still fast asleep right now and I really don't think waking her up is a good idea," C-Sha wisely said. "Why don't we just quietly slip in for now and get a few more hours of sleep before meeting up later in the morning?"

"Mm... that's fine," Vert mumbled blearily. "Maybe I can go cuddle up with Ram and Rom... Yes... that sounds lovely..."

"Um... I really don't think that's a good idea Vert. Blanny's probably going to- Wait, what's going on here?"

The reason for C-Sha's surprise became apparent as the two of them entered through the gates and saw the interior courtyard of the Basilicom. The normally peaceful administrative complex was currently a bustling hub of activity as guards, advisors, and various other staff members ran about in a noticeably urgent matter. Considering that the last time the place had been on such high-alert was when Ram had gotten her hands on a Blue Shell, C-Sha and Vert immediately knew that something major had occurred.

"You there. What's going on?"

The random guard that C-Sha questioned immediately stopped upon noticing her and gave a small salute.

"Thank goodness you're here Lady C-Sha! There was apparently some kind of major disturbance in Planeptune which allowed the Lastation fans to finally make their move and launch their invasion! Lady Blanc has ordered our own nation to be put on high-alert and is currently holding an emergency meeting with Lady Histoire at the moment! You should hurry and join her in her office as quickly as possible!"

With a quick nod, C-Sha dismissed the soldier and immediately headed off to meet up with Blanc.

Vert, on the other hand, stood frozen in place as a sudden feeling of dread roused her from her drowsiness. Funnily enough, it was not the thought of Planeptune being torn apart by crazy fans that worried her but the terrifying prospect of seeing Histoire again that chilled her to her bone. Considering everything that had happened, the tiny Oracle would no doubt blame the entire disaster on her for not keeping the boy under control. Even if Vert had wanted nothing to do with him, there was no questioning that she was now responsible for him... or at least that was how Histoire would see it. And after everything the boy had done, it was all but inevitable that Vert would be on the receiving end of one of Histoire's infamous lectures.

After standing out in the cold for a good couple of minutes, Vert decided there she could not keep running forever and that the crisis at hand was simply too big to ignore. Even if she would mostly end up being scolded to death (quite literally considering that the CPUs had once seen Histoire scold a King Dogoo until it actually melted in shame), Vert still had a duty to make sure that Gamindustri as a whole was kept safe.

With a sigh big enough to stir up a mini blizzard on the snow-covered floor in front of her, Vert reluctantly made her way towards her friend's office.

* * *

Unsurprisingly, Vert managed to hear Blanc long before she saw her.

"...expect me to believe that bullshit?!"

It was clear that being woken up so early plus the added stress of the situation was making Blanc rage even harder than usual. As Vert slowly inched her way closer towards the half-open office door, Histoire's voice was heard replying in a strained yet patient tone.

" _I am being quite serious here, Blanc,"_ the Oracle said through a presumable communicator. _"Our top priority right now is finding Uzume and getting her to defeat this dragon."_

 _Dragon?_ Vert wondered in confusion as Blanc began shouting again.

"Why are we wasting time with this shit?! Seriously, just get Neptune to deal with it! I don't know if you've noticed but YOUR FUCKING COUNTRY IS BEING INVADED!"

Thankfully, C-Sha was at hand to keep the fiery goddess from blowing out everyone's eardrums any further.

"Now, now Blanny. Let's at least hear what Histoire has to say before we start flipping tables around."

After waiting for Blanc to take a few deep breaths and apparently release her grip on her desk, Histoire spoke up again in a weary voice.

" _Considering that this dragon is capable of eating the souls of both the living and the dead, it's currently the larger threat. Neptune and Nepgear have already engaged the dragon but they reported that none of their attacks are causing its HP to drop. Apparently, its shielded by some kind of plot-protection that makes it immune to any non-scripted attacks. Our only hope now is to trust in the prophecy and hope that Uzume's shouting powers can kill this monster."_

Hearing this, Vert vaguely remembered the prophecy that the boy had deciphered from the old scroll back when they had visited Planeptune. Even though it felt like an entire lifetime ago, Vert managed to recall that the prophecy had said something about needing the power of a loud shouter to defeat the doomsday dragon. If that was the case, then it made sense that Uzume was the best candidate to save the world.

"This whole prophecy business still sounds like a load of Dogoo shit to me," Blanc angrily muttered. "For one, why didn't it warn us about these damn fans as well? Kind of seems like an important detail to leave out."

Histoire gave a loud sigh before replying. _"The fan uprising coinciding with this dragon's appearance was simply a case of bad luck. Sadly, it did give the fans the exact opening they were looking for. With most of our forces occupied with containing this dragon menace, we can't do much against the fans except slow down their advance."_

There was a moment of silence before C-Sha spoke up again.

"So... all we need to do is find Uzume and this entire situation can be resolved, right? Sounds simple enough to me."

Blanc gave an annoyed growl to this. "It's anything but simple. Uzume was apparently at the video game convention when all this bullshit started."

Vert could not see the expression C-Sha was making but she guessed it looked extremely grim based on Histoire's reaction.

" _Did something happen at the convention center?"_ the Oracle asked in a worried tone.

After a momentary pause, C-Sha answered in a serious voice. "The video game convention was an international event so there were thousands of attendees from Lastation as well." Vert silently winced as she realized exactly where this was going. "It took less than one hour after Noire's engagement video was released for the fans to overwhelm all of our guards and seize control of the entire city. All of the residents were able to safely evacuate in time but most of the convention attendees ended up being trapped inside the building. To make matters worse, the fans were able to quickly reinforce themselves thanks to the city's close proximity to the southern Lowee/Lastation border and turned the entire place into one of their major strongholds. Since then, we've lost all communication with the area and any attempts to take back the city have been met with heavy resistance."

There was silence both inside and outside the office as Vert and Histoire tried to process this shocking revelation.

"There is one piece of good news though," Blanc said after a few seconds. "The few people that managed to escape from the convention center said that a small resistance group had fortified themselves inside the lower halls of the building and were keeping back the fans from there. I think it's safe to assume that Uzume is a part of this group considering her past experiences as a freedom fighter."

Histoire took a moment to think over this before finally speaking up again.

 _"Blanc, how long would it take for you to gather your soldiers and take back the city?"_

The Lowee CPU gave a sigh as if she had been expecting this question. "That isn't going to work Histoire. At least not with our given time-frame. Planeptune would be completely overrun by the time I break through their defenses and-" Blanc paused as she suddenly radiated an intense aura of annoyance towards the direction of her office door.

"I know you're out there," she growled out threateningly. "You have one second to reveal yourself before I come out swinging."

Vert barely stopped herself from letting out a surprised yelp at being found out. Though she did not know it, Blanc actually had something of a sixth sense when it came to detecting eavesdroppers due to the twins' annoying tendency to pry into her private matters. It was only due to Blanc being so agitated and tired that Vert had been able to avoid detection until now.

Hearing the petite goddess moving towards the door, Vert quickly chose the less painful option and entered the room.

Compared to her own extravagant office and Noire's picture-perfect business set-up, Blanc's office was relatively small, simple, and, for lack of a better word, cozy. With a large fur rug, a welcoming fireplace, and a small fir tree sitting in the corner of the room as decoration, the place looked as if it was always ready for the holiday season. Sadly though, the room's current occupants did not share in the festive nature of the room and were quite possibly the furthest thing from jolly at the moment.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Thunder-Tits?"

Vert felt the slightest tinge of annoyance at Blanc's usual disrespect for her heavenly breasts but it was quickly overlooked due to the overwhelmingly terrifying presence that was radiating from the other occupant of the room. Despite the fact that she was simply a holographic image projected by Blanc's desktop communicator, Histoire still managed to terrify Vert all the same.

" _So,"_ the small fairy said with a reproachful glare, _"the prodigal daughter returns. Might I ask why you decided to show up now in Lowee of all places?"_

Seeing that Vert was too terrified to speak, C-Sha quickly stepped in to explain.

"I found her at the northern border while I was scouting the area. I'm guessing she was at Lastation when the fan revolt started and had to sneak her way up here."

Vert could only guess as to how furious Histoire must have looked as she pointedly kept her gaze on the floor.

" _You were playing around in Lastation this whole time?!"_ Histoire yelled, obviously still annoyed at all the time she spent looking for the AWOL goddess during the past week. _"Not only did you have the audacity to run from your responsibilities as an older sister, you also deemed it fit to avoid your duties to your own nation as well?! Young lady, we are going to have a serious talk right here, right now!"_

At this point, Vert was praying to just about every deity in existence for some kind of miracle to swoop in and save her from Histoire's wrath.

Unfortunately for her, her prayers were answered.

Almost as if waiting for this exact moment, the space between the four of them suddenly began to distort. In a manner strikingly reminiscent of the day that Vert's life was turned completely upside-down, a glowing green portal formed in the center of the office before unceremoniously spitting out a familiar green-coated figure onto the fur rug.

"Hax! I call hax!" the disheveled and slightly smoking figure of Sync yelled out in a muffled voice as he stayed face-down on the floor. "There's no way that tank shot could have hit me while I was all the way up on the rooftop!"

Histoire, Blanc, and C-Sha were all stunned silent at this bizarre and unexpected interruption as they simply continued to stare blankly at the boy. As for Vert, she suddenly found herself cycling through a vast array of (mostly negative) emotions. Though annoyance and anger were chief among them, she was surprised to find a tiny, almost minuscule, part of her that almost felt... relieved at seeing the boy alive. Of course, this feeling was quickly forgotten about as she began to walk forward with the full intention of giving him a good whack on the head for all the trouble he caused.

Much to her surprise, however, Blanc beat her to it.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!"

As everyone – especially Vert - watched in surprise, the Lowee CPU stalked over and smacked Sync on the back of his head before effortlessly lifting him up by the back of his coat collar.

"Ow... Wait, Blanc?" Sync asked with a mildly surprised look on his face. "What are you doing in Lean- oh, crap. The explosion must have screwed up my coordinates."

Ignoring the enraged goddess who was holding him up – an impressive feat considering that even Vert could feel the suffocating pressure of pure rage that Blanc was currently radiating – Sync began to casually look around the room as if to confirm his current location. Much to Vert's displeasure, his gaze came to a halt as soon as he spotted her.

"Oh, hi sis!" he called out with a bright smile that clashed horribly with the current mood of the room. "Sorry about causing such a mess. I really had no idea that Noire's fans would take my little prank so seriously. Anyways, I'm glad to see you got out of there alive. I got kind of worried when I couldn't find you but I should have known you had already sneaked out of the country. Oh, and nice parka and scarf by the way. It suits you really well."

Vert became keenly aware of everyone in the room turning to stare at her as if waiting to see how she would respond to this. Even Blanc's normally unstoppable rage seemed to be on a temporary hold as she too looked at the dumbfounded blonde goddess with the tiniest hint of curiosity in her eyes.

Finding herself unable to properly think at the moment, Vert simply said the first thing that entered her mind.

"Don't call me sis."

Sync seemed strangely pleased with this response as his smile widened just a tiny bit more. Meanwhile, time finally seemed to unfreeze for everyone else as they returned to what they were doing before. Unfortunately, this also happened to include Blanc unleashing her rage at the boy.

"YOU LITTLE BASTARD! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU'VE-!"

"Ugh... why is everyone being so loud today?"

Everyone turned in surprise as a sleepy-eyed Ram suddenly walked into the room wearing a set of pink pajamas. Considering that Blanc's office was only a few doors down from the twin's bedroom, all of the shouting had most likely woken up the usually energetic CPU Candidate from her sleep.

"Ah, um... sorry about waking you up," Blanc apologized in a much softer voice as her awkward-yet-caring older sister persona took over. "Go back to bed Ram. I'm just taking care of some... business."

Ram did not move as she sleepily took in the scene before her. Much to Vert's surprise, the little girl's face suddenly lit up with a bright smile as she laid eyes on the troublesome boy.

"Sync! You're finally back!" Leaving behind a thoroughly confused Vert, Ram suddenly ran back over to the door and stuck her head out into the hallway. "Hey, Rom! Sync's finally back to play with us!"

Almost as if she had been magically summoned there, Rom zoomed into the office while still in her blue pajamas. Though she still looked very drowsy, her expression rapidly brightened upon seeing their visitor.

"Big bro! I missed you!"

The moment she heard this, Vert felt her jaw practically unhinge itself as she stared at the events unfolding before her with a volatile mixture of bewilderment, jealously, and shock.

"Heh, I missed you too Rom. And you as well Ram." Sync gave a much more innocent-looking grin than what he normally wore as he strained to look back at the twins while Blanc continued to hold him up like a misbehaving puppy. "Um... sorry to start things off by asking for a favor but could you convince Blanc to put me down? It's getting kind of disorienting hanging off the ground like this."

Much to everyone's surprise, the twins actually listened to his request and approached their older sister with disapproving looks on their faces.

"Stop being so mean to Sync!" Ram shot out with a pout as she faced a rather flabbergasted Blanc. "Put him down right now!"

"D...Don't hurt big bro, sis," Rom pleaded as she put on a pair of puppy-dog-eyes that could have probably persuaded even the Deity of Sin to give up on her plans of world destruction.

As it turned out, even Blanc's rage was no match for the dual strike of her sisters' assertiveness and adorableness.

"Gah! Alright, I'll let him go! Just stop looking at me like that!"

Vert could practically hear something breaking inside her head as Blanc actually let go of the object of her ire and backed off. Her mind only continued to break further as the twins ran up and embraced Sync with an overwhelming sense of affection.

"Come on you two," Sync said with a bright smile of his own as he returned the group hug. "I've only been gone for what... three days? Four? Sorry, I guess I was so busy I lost track of time."

"You were gone for five whole days dummy!" Ram told him with mock indignation after she and Rom finally backed off. "You promised you'd come over every other day!"

"Sorry, sorry. I just got into a bit of trouble in Lastation and-"

"Okay, stop! Everyone just stop right now!"

Vert's sudden shout caused everyone to immediately face her way with varying degrees of confusion. Their looks quickly changed to one of surprise and concern however when they saw the crazed expression that the blonde goddess was currently wearing.

"You," Vert breathed out heavily as she held out a shaking finger towards Sync, "When did you... No. How did you-?"

Despite her barely coherent sentences, Sync seemed to perfectly understand what she was trying to say.

"I introduced myself to Blanc and the twins while you were off on your little vacation." His grin slowly took on its usual mischievous edge as he looked over at his barely functioning sister. "As for how I got into Ram and Rom's good graces, well, who can resist my charming good looks and personality?"

Both Vert and Blanc seemed to choke on air at this remark while Ram playfully punched Sync on the arm.

"Dummy. I only let you be my personal servant because you actually know how to have fun unlike all these other boring adults. Plus, you did take us to see that awesome new movie with that Bayonetta lady in it."

"HE DID WHAT?!"

The sheer outrage in Blanc's shout was enough to make even Sync's ever-present grin falter.

"Er... Ram? I thought we agreed to keep that a secret."

"Oh... oops..." Seeing her older sister summon her hammer to her hand, Ram quickly tried to cover for her blunder. "I...It wasn't like the movie was too scary or anything though! Even Rom got through the whole thing without crying!"

"Big bro was holding my hand the whole time so it wasn't so bad," Rom supplied shyly. "I did have to close my eyes a bit when those mutant angel things came out of the graveyard though."

"Oh, I remember that part!" Ram shouted enthusiastically. "That's where Bayonetta fought off, like, a hundred bad guys and finally summoned that giant head-chopping thing and used it to kill the boss! That was just awesome!"

While Sync tried to ignore the onslaught of disapproving and shocked looks aimed at him, Rom suddenly spoke up in an admiring tone.

"Ms. Bayonetta is so cool. I want to be just like her when I grow up."

Ram ignored the strangled noise that Blanc was making as she enthusiastically nodded her head. "I know, right? Oh, I got an idea! Let's go borrow some of Uni's guns and stick them on our shoes! Then we can totally be just like her!"

"NO!" Blanc finally exploded. "YOU ARE NOT GETTING YOUR HANDS ON ANY GUNS! AND BAYONETTA IS NOT A PROPER ROLE MODEL FOR KIDS LIKE YOU!"

"She is pretty awesome though," C-Sha commented from the sidelines. She immediately shut her mouth when Blanc gave her a look that threatened a very painful death if she spoke any further.

"AS FOR YOU!" Blanc screamed as she stormed over and lifted up an understandably worried-looking Sync by the front of his shirt collar. "I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU EXACTLY WHAT YOUR INSIDES LOOK LIKE, YOU LITTLE PIECE OF-"

" _Lady Histoire! I have urgent news!"_

Not for the first time that day, Blanc found her murderous rampage cut short by an unexpected interruption. As everyone turned to face the hologram projector, a purple-robed Planeptune soldier suddenly appeared next to the Oracle.

" _Is something wrong?"_ Histoire asked in a worried voice. _"Did the fans break through our defensive line already?"_

Much to everyone's surprise, the soldier actually gave a smile as he shook his head. _"No ma'am! I'm actually here to report that Lady Uzume has appeared with the older Neptune and that they're battling the dragon as we speak! Thanks to them, all of our forces are now available to fight against the fans!"_

It took a few seconds before Histoire managed to fully process this rare piece of good news. _"Get our soldiers to reinforce the front line immediately!"_ she quickly ordered. _"This is our chance to drive back these crazed fans from our country, once and for all!"_

" _Yes, ma'am!"_

As the soldier rushed out of view, Sync put on an unusually amused look as he continued to be held up by Blanc.

"Huh. Ms. Neptune sure took a while to find Uzume. I wonder if she took a little detour to pick up some pudding along the way?"

Everyone turned to Sync with varying confused expressions but it was Histoire who questioned him first.

" _Big Neptune was with you this whole time?"_

Sync answered with his usual smile. "Sort of. I had just gotten Noire and myself out of the TV station when Ms. Neptune appeared to help us. Apparently, she was out hunting for some rare bugs when she heard the news and teleported over to find me. Thanks to her help, we were able to avoid the fans and even round up a handful of surviving Lastation guards to help us along the-"

"Hey!" Ram suddenly interrupted. "What's everyone talking about? I want to know too!"

The somewhat serious atmosphere in the room was instantly shattered by the childish outburst as Sync gave an amused laugh at the younger twin's antic. Much to everyone's surprise, he instantaneously teleported out of Blanc's grasp and appeared right next to Ram and Rom.

"Sorry about making you feel left out by all of this," he apologized while Blanc continued to look back and forth between his current location and her now-empty hand with a mixed look of anger and astonishment. "Here's everything that's happened up till now..."

* * *

"-and that's why a bunch of crazed fans are now on a crazed rampage across most of Gamindustri."

"What in the-?" C-Sha exclaimed as she looked around in confusion. "Was that a jump cut just now?"

Sync flashed her an small smile. "Yep. Ms. Neptune taught me a few meta tricks during our training sessions together. I figured none of you would have appreciated it if I started a recap episode so I went with the handy, off-screen exposition method instead."

Blanc just pinched the bridge of her nose as she let out a loud groan. "It's like watching an unholy fusion of Ram, Thunder-Tits, and Neptune all rolled up into one insufferable package..."

Ram ignored her sister's comment and instead faced Sync with a furious pout on her face. "I never gave you permission to marry Noire!" she shouted out indignantly. "You're _my_ personal servant! You're supposed to be with me forever, not some lame Tsundere like her!"

"Um... Ram?" Rom interjected. "I thought we agreed to share big bro and marry him together when we got older."

Everyone aside from C-Sha and Sync began to make dying Horsebird sounds at this statement. While the Gold Third leader was busy commenting about just how cute all of this was, Sync instead tried to gain control of the situation before things escalated any further.

"Let's... um... save these marriage talks for a later time, okay?" He gave a nervous glance towards Blanc who's left eye was beginning to take on its signature red glow. "A... Anyways, the whole thing with Noire was just a prank, Ram. I'm not really married to her."

Ram stared at him intently for a few seconds as if trying to determine his honesty before crossing her arms and giving a short nod. "Good. Rom and I already called dibs on you. You belong only to us." Next to her, Rom silently nodded her head in agreement.

Sync gave the two of them a playful smile before giving them a little bow. "Of course, my dear ladies. I am at your command."

Despite having her brain more or less turned to mush by everything that had just happened, Vert could not help but feel an overwhelming sense of jealousy towards the boy as he continued his banter with the twins. During her many years of knowing Ram and Rom, Vert could not even get them to refer to her as 'older sister' without bribing them with a bunch of candy. With the boy, however, both of them were more than willing to consider him as a member of their family and even talked about marrying him in their own childish ways. To Vert, this entire situation felt so unfair to her that she had to make a conscious effort not to throw a tantrum right then and there.

Unaware of the turmoil that Vert was currently feeling, Histoire cleared her throat as she tried to bring the conversation back to its original topic.

" _Now that we've informed Ram and Rom of the preliminary details, I would very much like to know the rest of your tale in Lastation, Sync."_

After giving the twins a pat on their heads (something which caused Vert to let out an internal scream that deafened all of her other personas), Sync turned to face the Oracle once again.

"There's really not that much to tell. Ms. Neptune and I used our teleportation powers to gather up all the guards that were still loyal to Noire and evacuated them to an abandoned factory that we had set up as our base. After we had mustered up a sizable force, Noire and I began making plans for a counteroffensive to retake the Basilicom."

"Hold on," Blanc suddenly interrupted. "Are you expecting me to believe that Noire actually agreed to work with you after all the shit you put her through?!"

Sync gave a shrug. "She was reasonable enough to see that I would be more useful to her alive then dead. Plus, the fact that she lost most of her Tsundere-ness when she activated her HDD form helped out a lot. Regardless, she agreed to accept my help as long as I didn't cause any more trouble for her. Of course, I don't think she's completely given up on her plans to kill me but that's just something I'll have fun with later in the future."

Vert, Blanc and Histoire could not help but raise their eyebrows at this. Sure, Noire seemed pretty tame compared to the maelstrom of carnage and destruction that was Blanc, but the Tsun-Queen was uncontested when it came to holding a grudge and was definitely not one to be disregarded so casually. No matter how this fan crisis turned out, one thing was now quite certain: Noire would have her revenge and no force in Gamindustri would stop her from pursuing it.

Seeming not to notice the ominous silence that had formed between the CPUs and Oracle, Sync casually continued on with his story.

"Now where was I? Oh, right. We were still gathering information and scouting out the fans when I finally remembered that the dragon prophecy I uncovered was scheduled for the following day. Thankfully, Ms. Neptune seemed to have a general idea about where Uzume was so I agreed to let her handle it. In the meantime, I figured we needed some extra firepower to reclaim the Basilicom so I planned to teleport to Leanbox and bring over a few of the Ran Rans for help."

"The Ran- what now?" Vert asked before she could stop herself.

Whether it was due to her prolonged exposure to him or just her natural sharpness, Vert managed to detect a faint hint of pride in the boy's smile as he answered. "Remember how I was working on a Philosopher's Stone before you left on your vacation?" She gave him a short nod in response. "Well, Nepgear and I finally managed to create a working model after several... mishaps."

" _He turned half of my Basilicom workers into hedgehogs while also changing Neptune into an actual kangaroo,"_ Histoire elaborated in a deadpan tone.

"Hey, to be fair, the change only lasted half a day and most of them enjoyed the experience. Well, Neptune did anyways... Regardless, I decided to finally change back all of our Ran-Pigs but encountered a small error. Turns out they'd been transformed for so long that a full conversion was impossible even with the Stone. Still, after a bit of experimenting, I managed to give them back a human body at the very least."

"Only a body?" Vert repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah... I have no idea what happened but all of them ended up with a permanent Ran-Pig mask stuck to their faces. None of them seemed too bothered by it though and they definitely agreed that it was a lot better than being an actual pig. Long story short, they decided to call themselves the Ran Rans and most of them decided to stick around with us at the Basilicom. Ms. Neptune helped out the ones that wanted to set out and create a new life for themselves by sending them off to... I think she called it the Super Dimension? Someplace like that. Anyways, I got a few letters from them since they left and it seems like they're all doing pretty well."

Vert tried and failed to process this through her barely functioning mind for several seconds before finally giving up. However, she did manage to recall something very important related to the matter.

"What happened to Chika and the rest of my staff members?"

"Oh, they're fine," he answered with a smile. "I changed them all back to their original forms before I helped out the Ran Rans. Chika even tried to kill me only a dozen times after I changed her back. Guess she was feeling rather appreciative about not having to quack anymore."

Vert could practically feel both of Histoire and C-Sha's disapproving glares at her back as they most likely wondered just what kind of home life she was providing for the boy. Luckily, she was spared from receiving another scolding as the source of her trouble spoke up once again.

"Getting back on topic, I knew from Noire's reports that the fans were keeping out of Leanbox at the moment so I figured it would be safe to bring over a few Ran Rans to help us. Unfortunately, my long-range teleportation skills were still a bit shaky so I needed to head out to a rather exposed rooftop to gain a fix on Leanbox's location. I thought I was out of range of all the fans in the area but it turned out those cheaters had enabled aim-assist on their tanks. After that... well, you know the rest."

As Sync's long recounting finally came to an end, it was Ram who unsurprisingly spoke up first.

"So you were fighting in a secret resistance group?" she asked excitedly, focusing only on the point that interested her the most. "That's so cool! I want to join the rebel army as well!"

"M...Me too!" Rom quickly chimed in. "I want to help big bro take down the evil fan empire!"

"NO!" Blanc immediately shouted. "You two are not going anywhere! The little shithead caused this whole mess so he can go fix it by himself as well!"

"Awwww! Don't be so boring Blanc!" Ram whined. "This whole thing sounds like a lot of fun! We might even face one of those Alloy Gears if we're lucky!"

Not surprisingly, this only made Blanc more obstinate in her refusal to help. Sync, meanwhile, was suddenly looking very thoughtful as he stared intently at Rom.

"Um... is something wrong big bro?" the older twin asked shyly once she realized that she was being watched.

After a few more seconds, Sync snapped his fingers as if hit by a sudden burst of inspiration.

"I got it!" he announced to the confused-looking crowd. "I've got a plan to stop this fan crisis in a single strike! The only thing I need is Ram and Rom's help!"

Acting before Blanc could protest, he began to outline his strategy to everyone gathered before him. Several minutes later, he finished detailing his plan as everyone mulled it over in silence. Well, almost everyone.

"I'm in!" Ram clamored almost immediately. "There's no way I'm not going on an awesome mission like this!"

"I'm going too!" Rom joined in with a surprisingly determined look. "We'll defeat those evil fans together!"

Sync gave the two a grateful smile before looking back up at the adults and waiting for their answers.

"Well," C-Sha eventually said, "the plan's definitely crazy but it's the sort of crazy that might actually work."

"Absolutely not!" Blanc argued. "There's no way I'm going to send Ram and Rom into that fan swarm! Unlike Thunder-Tits here, I actually want to keep my siblings alive, thank you very much!"

Vert felt that she should say something against this but found herself unable to come up with a proper argument. Finding herself at a loss, she simply turned to face Histoire instead.

"What are your thoughts on this?" she asked in a tired voice.

Histoire gave a thoughtful pause before answering. _"It is a risky plan but I believe it does have its merits..."_

"Not you too!" Blanc shouted angrily.

" _Peace, Blanc. I did not say that I am supporting this plan as of yet."_ The Oracle turned to face Sync with a serious look. _"Putting aside your main strategy for now, how exactly do you plan to get your special task force across all the fans and rendezvous with Noire's army?"_

Sync seemed fully prepared for this question as he gave a confident smile. "The distance between here and Noire's base is close enough that I can attempt a warp. Seeing as how I won't have to worry about being shot at here, I can safely pinpoint the target location with a decent amount of accuracy. The only drawback is that I can probably only take about a dozen other people with me. Maybe a small airship as well if we really want to push it. Any more than that though and I'd probably end up flinging us into the middle of the ocean or something."

Blanc was not pleased at all about this piece of information.

"You want me to send my sisters to the very pits of hell with only a handful of soldiers for protection?!"

C-Sha placed a calming hand on her friend's shoulder before facing Sync herself. "Can't you just make several trips? Lowee's not in any serious threat right now so we can afford to send at least a full squadron of Hunters and guild agents with you."

Sync gave a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head. "I would if I could but I don't exactly have that sort of power or control. As much as Neptune insists on it, I'm not exactly an all-powerful space deity. Even making one jump across this distance is going to take the utmost concentration and care to make sure I don't screw it up. I think the fact that I'm currently here instead of in Leanbox right now is a good indication of what could happen if I happen to make a mistake or get distracted while attempting a long-distance warp."

Even Vert could not help but concede that that boy had a point. The last thing anyone wanted was for him to accidentally send a large chunk of Lowee's military force into an active volcano by accident.

"Besides," he continued with a much brighter smile, "my plan doesn't require that many soldiers to succeed in the first place. A small elite strike force along with Ram and Rom will be more than enough to put an end to this fan threat."

Everyone turned back to Histoire as if waiting for her to decide whether to allow this plan or not. After a long silence, the Oracle let out a tired sigh.

" _I do not think this plan is a good idea at all."_ From the sidelines, Blanc let out a satisfied smile and nod to this. _"However,"_ Histoire continued, much to the Lowee CPU's dismay, _"I know how much you care about Ram and Rom. I do not believe that you would have proposed this idea if you were not confident in your ability to keep them safe. As such, I believe it is worth giving your idea a try."_

"Yay! We get to go on an adventure with Sync!" Ram cheered excitedly as she and Rom began to do a little victory dance together.

On the flip side of things, Blanc was downright furious and spent the next several minutes arguing with Histoire about the matter. It was only when C-Sha stepped into the argument and backed up Histoire's decision that Blanc finally backed off.

"Fine!" she angrily shouted out. "We'll go along with this shitty-ass plan then but I'm going with them!"

" _I'd advise against that Blanc,"_ Histoire immediately countered. _"The people of Lowee requires your leadership in this crisis and we can't afford to have two CPUs absent from their nations right now."_ The Oracle gave Vert a pointed glare at this which caused her to quickly look away in embarrassment.

Before Blanc could argue any further, C-Sha spoke up with a smile. "Don't worry, Blanny. I'll go along with them and make sure they're safe. It'll be just like all those times I took them monster hunting with me."

It said a lot about just how much Blanc trusted C-Sha when she finally relented and grudgingly accepted the conditions. However, she did take a moment to face Sync with a glare that could have burned an entire village down.

"If I find _one_ scratch on either of them, I will make you wish you were mauled by Noire's fans instead."

With those ominous last words, Blanc stomped out of the room to prepare an airship for their departure.

"Well," Vert eventually said into the rather uncomfortable silence that had settled, "I... um... wish you luck on your mission and-"

" _Oh no you don't,"_ Histoire interrupted in a threatening tone. _"You've been running away from your responsibilities long enough Vert. Seeing as how it would be a waste of time and effort to just send you back to Leanbox at the moment, I am assigning you to look after your brother and the twins on this mission."_

"WHAT?!" Vert cried out in utter shock. "No! I just got out of that place alive! I am not going back in there!"

" _This matter is not up for debate,"_ Histoire said with a steely glint in her eyes. _"You_ will _accompany your brother to Lastation and that is final. If you successfully carry out this mission then I just might forgive your previous childish behavior. Fail, however, and I shall show you exactly why Neptune fears me so much."_

Satisfied with the fearful look Vert was giving her, the Oracle ended her call and disappeared from view. Vert simply continued to stare at the empty spot where Histoire had been for several long seconds before Sync cheerfully walked up next to her.

"Glad to have you with us, sis," he casually commented with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "It's reassuring to know you and C-Sha will have our backs in case the fan's leader decides to show up."

This did the trick in snapping Vert out of her daze as she looked down at the boy in confusion and fear. "L...Leader?" she repeated shakily.

Across from her, Ram suddenly began to bounce up and down excitedly. "There's an evil fan boss as well? Cool! Is he going to challenge us in a giant Alloy Gear in an epic final battle?"

Before Sync could answer, C-Sha spoke up as well. "Now that you mention it, there's something I've been wondering for quite some time now. Why exactly were the fans so intent on invading Planeptune in the first place? I suspected there was a leader coordinating all these fans based on how organized they were but what was their ultimate goal?"

Sync put on his usual nonchalant smile before answering C-Sha's question first. "The fans had two primary objectives set out to them: killing me and capturing Noire. Seeing as how the two of us managed to keep ourselves hidden for so long, the leader probably thought we'd escaped to one of the neighboring countries. I guess they thought Planeptune was the most likely option considering Noire's closeness with Neptune. Ironically enough, the fact that they moved most of their forces out of Lastation is probably the reason why we were able to mass up a resistance force undetected."

C-Sha listened to all of this in silence before something suddenly seemed to click inside her head. "Fans... Noire... advanced military tactics... Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

Sync's smile seemed to grow by a fraction of an inch as C-Sha suddenly gave a large facepalm but made no comment about it. Instead he turned to face the twins. "As for your question Ram, I kind of doubt the leader would fight us in a giant Alloy Gear. From the reports I've read, she prefers to engage her victims on the field herself. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure every CPU and CPU Candidate other than me has already fought her once before."

"We did?" Vert asked as she mirrored the confused looks on Ram and Rom's faces. Off to the side, C-Sha just let out a groan as she began to shake her head.

"Still haven't figured it out yet?" Sync asked as he faced Vert with a clearly amused smile. When she simply shook her head at him, he continued in an increasingly cheerful voice. "She's someone who can frighten even the fans into following her will. Someone who would stop at nothing to capture Noire. Someone... who our dear friend C-Sha is apparently having an aneurysm over."

As the answer slowly dawned upon Vert, a feeling of pure, absolute dread enveloped her as she realized just what she had gotten herself into. Paying no heed to her horrified expression, Sync casually went on with his narration.

"The leader of the swarm and the overriding will of all things to do with Noire. She is none other than the Queen of Yanderes herself."

He paused as he faced his mortified sister with a large grin.

"Yeah, it's K-Sha."

Vert simply responded to this by fainting on the spot.


	7. Return from the Different Dimension

**Ch 7: Return From the Different Dimension**

Though it took far longer than expected, Sync and his little rescue team eventually managed to set out on their mission with a fancy, new airship in tow.

True to her words, Blanc had managed to procure a small yet highly advanced transport for the team to use. Though the vessel resembled a basic blimp on the outside (as all Lowee airships tended to do), it was actually a veritable flying fortress with its 360 degree turret coverage, armored hull, plasma shield array, and state-of-the-art navigation and targeting system. To top it all off, the whole thing was propelled by a series of Halberd-class jet-engines; capable of propelling the airship to near Mach speed at full capacity.

In short, it was clear that Blanc had spared no expenses in getting the best airship possible for her sisters.

Speaking of whom, the twins were currently standing next to Sync on the airship's bridge as they practically buzzed with excitement. The two of them had changed into their usual blue and pink winter outfits for the mission and were eagerly looking forward to 'kick some fan butt' (as Ram had so eloquently put it). Also accompanying them were C-Sha - who was wearing her seemingly never-changing blue attire - as well as four goggle-wearing Hunters in matching red samurai armor. Despite their rather generic looking appearances, they were apparently some of the best Hunters in Lowee and had been hand-picked by C-Sha to act as emergency bodyguards for the twins.

As for Vert, she was busy being unconscious in the ship's cargo hold where Blanc had dumped her prior to leaving.

With (almost) everyone prepared for the mission at hand, Sync had immediately set about to locking onto Lastation's coordinates as their ship took to the skies. After charging up his energy for a few minutes, he instantly warped away the airship and its crew in a flash of green light towards Lastation.

...or at least, that had been the plan.

"Um... Big bro? I don't think we're in Gamindustri anymore."

"Hm? What makes you say that Rom?"

"Um... it's just that... I don't remember Lastation looking so... uh... live-action-y before."

Sync did not immediately reply as he followed Rom's gaze and looked down at the strangely realistic city below them.

"Huh. That's weird," he eventually commented. "I'm pretty sure I locked onto the right coordinate points before warping us here. Maybe K-Sha just decided to remodel the whole place while we were away?"

Before anyone could answer, a nearby office building suddenly blew up with a gigantic fiery explosion. With rather impeccable timing, a random woman suddenly began to scream in a rather over-the-top manner as the local populace of non-animated civilians immediately began to evacuate the area. Amidst the flames, debris, and running people, C-Sha managed to spot a rather conspicuous figure laughing maniacally far below them.

"What in the-? Is that some kind of monster?"

One of the Hunters took a moment to take a better look at the obvious villain before making an extremely confused face. "Er... It looks more like someone wearing a giant rubber turkey costume than a monster."

After confirming this with their own eyes, everyone simultaneously turned to face Sync for an answer.

"Um... Maybe it's just one of Noire's fans from the Lowee convention?" Sync said with a half-hearted shrug. "I'm sure there were plenty of weird cosplayers there and..."

His words died out however when four figures in full-body power suits suddenly leaped out from the evacuating crowd to confront the bizarre turkey/man/monster thing. While the newcomers were all wearing helmets to hide their real identities, the all-too familiar color palette of purple, black, white, and green on their costumes made it rather easy for Sync and the gang to guess who they really were.

 ** _"Nepu Rangers, assemble!"_**

With that group shout, the four costumed heroes began to do battle with the turkey villain in a series of highly-choreographed stunts. As the epic fight got under way, a rather catchy theme song began to play from seemingly out of nowhere.

 _Go, go Nepu Rangers!  
Go, go Nepu Rangers!  
Mighty Morphin Nepu Rangers!_

As this scene of complete and utter WTF-ery played out before them, the airship crew once again turned to face Sync with confused looks.

"Okay... I admit there's a slight possibility that I might have accidentally brought us into another dimension," Sync said. There was a brief pause as the entire group turned to watch the turkey villain throw what seemed to be cranberry sauce grenades at the Nepu Rangers. "...Either that or we somehow ended up in one of Neptune's fever dreams. Look... um... just give me a few minutes to try and fix this. I'm sure we can't be _too_ far off from the Megadimension... I hope."

With that, Sync quickly left the main bridge to find a less crowded area to work in. As for everyone else, they simply remained silent for a few more seconds before finally giving a collective shrug. With nothing else to do, the dimensionally-misplaced group sat back and enjoyed the corny yet highly entertaining battle playing out before them. Ram and Rom clearly enjoyed the show the most though as they cheered loudly for the White Ranger the whole time.

* * *

 ** _On that day, humanity received a grim reminder. We lived in fear of... the Dogoo Men._**

"Did a Colossal Dogoo Man just kick down the wall surrounding that retro-looking Lastation?" Sync asked, deciding to ignore the bizarre narration that had just occurred.

"Uh huh," C-Sha answered distractedly, keeping her eyes on the chaos taking place outside.

"And is that a horde of other large Dogoo Men swarming into the city through the newly-made hole?"

"Yup."

"And now they're going around the city eating people like Neptune at an all-you-can-eat pudding buffet."

"Seems like it."

"... ... ..."

"... ... ..."

"...I'll get back to work then. Hopefully I can get us to the proper Lastation this time."

"You go do that."

* * *

 **" _Get in the fucking robot Uni!"_**

 **" _I don't want to! I... I'm too scared to do it!"_**

 **" _Oh, oh, oh! Can I pilot the robot instead, Noire?! I love giant robots!"_**

 **" _NO! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, NEPGEAR?! STAY AWAY FROM OUR EVAS!"_**

"Um... What exactly are we listening in to?"

The Hunter in charge of the ship's long-range radio scanner just gave a shrug in response to Sync's question.

"I don't know but that giant monster wrecking Lastation looks totally awesome!" Ram interjected cheerfully. "Hey, Rom! Why don't we go outside to fight that thing? Maybe we can even steal... er, I mean borrow, that giant robot they're talking about over the radio!"

"Um... I don't think that's a very good idea Ram..."

Sync wordlessly walked out of the room again as he left C-Sha and the Hunters to keep the twins in check.

* * *

 **" _You were expecting Nepgear, but it was me, Nepugia!"_**

 **" _Even Noire is afraid!"_**

 **" _ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"_**

 **" _ZA WARUDO! MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!"_**

"You know," Sync said to no one in particular as the steamroller that Nepugia had seemingly pulled out of nowhere and started punching exploded, "I get the strange feeling that Ms. Neptune would have loved this dimension."

Another flying steamroller narrowly missed the airship as he finished saying that.

* * *

 **" _I promised Peashy that I would bring you back Blanc! Come back to the village with me!"_**

 **" _You could never understand me! I need to get vegeance on Rei for killing my entire fandom!"_**

 **" _Blaaaaanc!"_**

 **" _Veeeeeert!"_**

"Um... hey, Ninja Sis?" Sync called out, amplifying his voice with the ship's external speaker system. "Could you please take your highly explosive wizard battle a little further away from us? I'm trying to pinpoint our spatial location and I can't do that if we have to keep moving around to dodge your fireballs and shadow clones."

The orange-clad Vert looked up at the ship in annoyance as she created a swirling blue ball of energy in her hand. **_"I thought I told you people to stop interrupting our season finale! And for the last time, stop calling me sis!"_**

Sync could not help but give a small smile at this. "Well, I'm glad to know some things never change."

His amusement was short lived, however, as he spotted Ninja Blanc filling her own hand with a large amount of blue electricity a little distance away. Deciding that it would be a smart idea to leave before the two 'ninjas' used their ultimate attacks on each other, he began to gather up his own energy.

"Okay, looks like I'll have to make an emergency warp then. Hopefully we'll end up someplace with some friendlier locals this time..."

* * *

"They're not friendly! Definitely not friendly!"

Sync's yells were lost in the cacophony of extreme violence taking place outside as the Hunter piloting the airship tried his best to lose the Nazi vampires chasing after them.

"Activate our auto-turrets!" C-Sha quickly ordered, making sure to firmly keep both hands over Ram and Rom's eyes (a rather difficult task considering Ram's continuous attempts to take a peek at the bloodbath outside).

In an instant, all of the vampires that had been using the nearby rooftops to chase after them were brutally mowed down by the turret fire as they exploded into a shower of excessive blood and gore. However, the airship crew barely had a chance to celebrate as an even larger horde of blood-thirsty vampires appeared on the rooftops to replace their fallen comrades. Seeing this, one of the Hunters could not help but scream out in abject terror.

"I don't care where we end up, just get us the hell out of here!"

Sync was only more than happy to comply.

* * *

 **" _Share Prism Powers Activate!"_**

As Magical Blancella finished her lengthy transformation sequence, Sync could not help but let out a low whistle.

"Dang. Blanc looks amazing in that short frilly skirt."

The four male Hunters all nodded their heads in agreement as they too kept their eyes glued onto Blanc's revealing outfit. Their staring came to an abrupt end however when a blast of freezing cold ice magic hit them all on the head.

"Stop staring at big sis like that you pervs!" Ram shouted out, glaring daggers at the sheepish-looking male group.

After brushing off the layer of frost on the back of his head, Sync gave the younger twin an embarrassed smile. "Eh heh heh... Sorry about that. But to be fair, what guy wouldn't stare in a situation like that?"

"T...Those naked boys who are always k...kissing each other in Miss Vert's books probably wouldn't," Rom pointed out while reddening slightly.

All of the older people in the room were suddenly wracked by a violent fit of embarrassed coughing at this.

"What in the world has Vert been showing to these kids?" C-Sha commented disapprovingly after finally recovering.

"Note to self," Sync muttered seriously, " _Never_ let sis plan any actual arranged marriages."

All the way back in the ship's cargo hold, Vert unconsciously let out a disappointed groan in her sleep.

* * *

Multiple dimensional jumps later, the airship crew found themselves flying over an unfamiliar yet relatively futuristic-looking city. Relatively because most places would have looked retro compared to the techno-haven that was Gamindustri. Regardless, the skyscraper-filled city looked safe enough - aside from the presence of a strange floating rock/island/city thing hovering over the sky a little distance away - so the group decided to take a brief break and discuss their current situation.

"Okay, not counting that empty void where we we all stopped to rest, I'm pretty sure this makes it the eighty-seventh alternate dimension we've ended up in so far."

"Eighty-sixth," one of the Hunters corrected C-Sha. "We revisited that dimension with the demon king part-timer to get some burgers for lunch."

"Oh yeah. That guy was pretty nice. It's too bad he's not getting another season for his show."

There was a brief silence broken only by the sound of Ram munching on a bag of potato chips.

"Heh heh. Sorry again for the trouble everyone," Sync apologized for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day (at least it felt like a day; it was kind of hard to tell with all the sporadic dimension hopping). "I'm guessing I'm just messing up some minor yet crucial detail while trying to lock onto our Lastation's spatial coordinates. In hindsight, Ms. Neptune and I probably should have finished going over dimensional travel theory instead of visiting that pudding parlor."

"Meh. I don't really mind," Ram dismissed cheerfully as she finished her snack. "I think this is actually really fun. Most of these different dimensions are really cool and the food is pretty good too. Speaking of which, do you have any more of these potato chips?"

Sync immediately pulled out another bag from his inventory and handed it over to her with a playful bow. "Is there anything else you need milady?"

"Nah, I'm good." Ram opened up what was now her fourth bag before turning to face her sister. "What about you Rom? Do you want any this time?"

Rom just shook her head. "I'm still full from all those cheeseburgers we had."

"By the way, where exactly did you even get all of these potato chips from?" one of the Hunters asked as he too munched on a bag of chips.

Sync gave a small smile as he decided to take one out for himself as well. "I snatched them from the Nepgear with the creepy black notebook a few dimensions back. She had quite the stockpile in her home so I figured she wouldn't mind if I teleported a few of them with us."

"Ahem," C-Sha suddenly interrupted. "I hate to be the one to get all serious here but we do need to figure out how to get back to our own dimension soon. Hopefully we still have enough time to rescue Noire and stop all of her fans."

Sync casually waved aside the concern as he finished munching on his own handful of chips. "I'm ninety-nine point three percent sure that all of the different dimensions we've visited so far have different time rates from our home dimension."

"Er... why ninety-nine point three?" C-Sha asked.

Sync gave another shrug. "Dimensional time estimates have a weird margin of error."

"Okay..."

"Anyways, the point is that we've practically got all the time in the world to get back home." Sync suddenly paused as he seemed to think about this for a few seconds. "Actually no. We probably have forty-three thousand years, eight months, three days, twenty-eight minutes, and sixteen seconds to get back before a full day passes in the Megadimension. Of course, that's only considering the average time discrepancy throughout all of the dimensions we've gone through so-"

"AHHHH! Stop saying all those numbers!" Ram cried out angrily. "I hate math! Math is stupid!"

Sync stopped his overly-technical monologue as he faced the younger twin with a smile. "Sorry. I tend to get carried away when it comes to calculating things. I might not be the strongest CPU Candidate around but I'm pretty sure I can calculate things better than anyone else. Well, except for maybe Nepgear. I'm pretty sure she can out-math me when it comes to one of her little 'experiments'."

Rom seemed to take particular interest in this as she faced him with a quizzical look. "Um... just how strong are you big bro? I mean, battle stats-wise. I don't think I've ever seen you fight before."

Ram immediately perked up at this as well. "Oh hey, she's right! We never did get to see you in action! Just what kind of special attacks do you have? Because it'd be embarrassing for me to have a personal servant who only has lame abilities like boring support buffs!"

"Support buffs can be useful..." Rom, the resident white mage, muttered dejectedly.

"Ah! I didn't mean it like that Rom!" Ram quickly backtracked. "I meant people who can do nothing but use support buffs are lame! You have really good healing spells and awesome offensive magic too so you're definitely not lame! Besides, you're my sister so that automatically makes you awesome by default!"

Rom quickly cheered up at her sister's words while Sync just gave a small smile at their interaction from the side. Seeing that the situation was properly handled, he decided to offer up an answer to Rom's earlier question instead.

"Well, I'm not going to just spoil everything and list all of my abilities right now but I suppose I can at least tell you about my ultimate secret move."

As expected, this immediately got Ram and Rom's attention as they turned to face him expectantly. Even C-Sha and the Hunters seemed curious as they too faced him with interested looks.

Seeing their reactions, Sync could not help but smile a little. "It's really nothing that special. I mean, it does have the same destructive power as about ten Blue Shells going off at the same time but that's hardly anything impressive." His audience seemed to beg to differ however as they stared at him with increased anticipation.

"Well, I guess there's no point in beating around the bush then. Alright, here it is. My ultimate secret technique." He paused for dramatic effect before finally speaking up with a large grin. "I teleport several body pillows of sis on top of my enemy and then watch as Chika appears to tear apart the target in her mad attempt to get the pillows."

An extremely long bout of silence covered the room following this 'big reveal'.

"Hey! That's not a real attack!" Ram eventually shouted indignantly.

Sync could only laugh in response to this as he took in the disappointed looks on everyone's faces. This continued for almost a full minute before Ram finally had enough and punched him on the arm.

"S...Sorry," Sync managed to choke out while still trying to stifle his laughter. "But you have to admit, it really is quite an effective ultimate attack."

"No it isn't!" Ram pouted. "Your ultimate attack should be something like your EXE Drive or a Formation Skill! Not some weird tactic like that!"

Sync gave another short laugh in response. "You should tell that to the poor S-Ranked Dragon monster I tested it on. I'm pretty sure this story's rating would have jumped to an 'M' if it had happened on-screen."

Stunned silence answered this statement as everyone stared at Sync with an open mouth.

"You... You took on a S-Rank mission by yourself... and completed it?" C-Sha eventually managed to ask.

Sync took a potato chip and ate it before replying. "Not exactly. The guild said that Chika was the one who killed the monster so all of the credit went to her. Apparently, she didn't count as my summon since I didn't use any actual spells or rituals to bring her into battle."

The ship's bridge once again fell silent as everyone made a mental note to never mess with the Leanbox Oracle ever again.

"Well then," Sync eventually announced, crumpling up his now-empty bag of chips, "I think we've rested here long enough. I'll get back to trying to get us to the proper Lastation then. Also, that giant floating island thing in the sky is starting to fall towards the city."

Everyone turned to look outside and saw that Sync was indeed telling the truth. However, their attention was quickly diverted when they saw something so completely bizarre that it actually managed to put everything else they saw that day to shame.

"Is that... Lady Nepgear and a Nepgeardam playing card games on flying motorcycles?" the pilot Hunter asked incredulously.

"Uh huh," C-Sha responded distractedly while keeping her eyes on the absurd airshow.

"And did that Nepgeardam just summon a mechanical time lord with Lady Histoire's face on it?"

"Yup."

"And now Lady Nepgear just summoned a giant fish/dragon that looks an awful lot like Sir Umio."

"Seems like it."

"... ... ..."

"... ... ..."

"This dimension is weird."

* * *

"Ohhh... So I was just locking onto the wrong tenth dimensional spatial variable while trying to get a fix on my target location. Now I get what I was doing wrong. Well, thanks for the help, Ms. Phantom."

 **" _...You're welcome. Now please leave before my... associates take notice of you."_**

The static-filled image that was on the communications screen disappeared as their mysterious helper ended the call.

"Whew. Glad we finally ran into someone who could help us," Sync let out as he immediately began to home in on their intended destination. "I still can't believe we had to go through more than a hundred different dimensions before we found one though."

"You got us some cool souvenirs so I'm not complaining," Ram declared, twirling about her new wooden staff that seemed to have a strange affinity for explosion spells. "Heh heh heh. I can't wait to test this out on all those crazy fans in Lastation. Let's see how those dummies like being frozen and exploded at the same time."

"Um... Ram? Could you please try not to use lethal force when we actually fight the fans?" C-Sha said with an uneasy smile. "They might be crazy but they're still people after all..."

Ram did not seem to hear this as she simply continued to plot her enemies' demise while laughing diabolically.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the twin spectrum, Rom turned to face Sync with a shy smile.

"T...T...Thanks for the gift, big bro," the older twin said, hugging a plushie of a large rotund panda that the locals apparently called an Oopa. "I really love how cute and fluffy this is."

"Glad you like it," Sync replied with a smile of his own. "It's the least I could do after dragging you through all of this."

"Heh heh. It's okay. I like spending time with you big bro."

A loud scream echoed from the cargo hold at this statement but was promptly ignored by everyone on the bridge.

...well, almost everyone.

"Oh, right," Sync said with a look of mild surprise. "I almost forgot about sis. Hey Ram, could you do me a favor and go wake her up? I've locked onto the coordinates so we'll be arriving at our destination in just a few seconds."

"Leave it to me!" Ram responded enthusiastically, quickly running off with her explosive staff in hand.

"Ah, wait up Ram! I want to help too!"

After carefully depositing her new doll into the safety of her inventory, Rom followed after her destructive sister to the cargo hold. Meanwhile, C-Sha turned to face Sync with a rather weary look.

"Are you _sure_ you have the right coordinates this time?"

Sync gave her a smile as a faint green glow began to cover the airship. "Positive. I'm even detecting energy signatures that correspond with Noire, the resistance, and... oh. Well, that's not good."

"What's not good?" C-Sha asked, not liking his sudden change in tone.

Sync managed to maintain his smile but there was definitely a hint of worry in his eyes. "Looks like the fans have finally found Noire and are attacking the resistance as we speak. I can't really make out the specifics from here but I'm pretty sure the fans are slowly overwhelming Noire's forces."

An ominous silence fell over the bridge as C-Sha and the Hunters were stunned silent at the news.

The bleak atmosphere continued to hang over the group for several long minutes before the pilot Hunter suddenly cleared his throat and spoke up.

"Ah, what the hell. I was starting to get bored of this little road trip anyways." He gave a wide grin to the rest of the party as he adjusted his goggles. "What do you say we go rescue Lady Noire and put an end to this fandom menace once and for all?"

As the other three Hunters gathered up their courage and gave a loud cheer to this, C-Sha and Sync could not help but feel their own spirits rise as well.

"Glad to know our morale is high at least," C-Sha said with a smile. "Well, you heard the man! Let's resume the mission!"

Sync gave a smile of his own as he finished prepping the ship for the dimensional jump. "Heh. With any luck, my lovely little waifu will still be alive when we get there. Alright! As a certain famous plumber would say: Here we go!"

And with that, the airship teleported away from the skies of Tenguu City in a flash of bright green.


	8. Mission Briefing

**Ch 8: Mission Briefing**

Throughout her long and rather... interesting lifetime, Vert had quite the misfortune of being woken up in a wide variety of unpleasant ways. Notable examples included Neptune whacking her on the head with a wooden sword, Plutia 'accidentally' stabbing her with sewing needles, Peashy straight-up punching her in the gut, as well as Uzume shouting directly into her ear (with a megaphone no less).

With all that said though, getting blown up by Ram was most definitely a new experience.

"EXPLOOOOOSION!"

The terrible nightmare Vert had been having about the twins becoming friendlier with Sync was instantly shattered by the blast of iridescent magical fire that engulfed her entire being. Thankfully, her share energy was more than enough to prevent her from being instantly vaporized by the excessive wake-up call. However, even her godly protection could not shield her from the laws of physics as the force of the explosion sent Vert flying straight into the adjacent metal wall.

 _CRASH!_

"Owwww..."

With that pained line, Vert slid down the goddess-shaped dent she had made in the reinforced steel wall and fell unceremoniously to the floor.

"Oh... oops," Ram said, lowering the curved wooden staff in her hands. "Eh heh... Maybe I overdid it a little..."

It was a good thing Blanc had the foresight to get an airship that was just as heavily armored on the inside as it was on the outside or there might have been a lot less of the ship left flying at the moment. As it was, the back end of the cargo hold where Vert had previously been lying in looked as if an entire battalion of Bomb-Ombs had marched inside and detonated at the same time. Thankfully, all of the riot-suppression gear that they had brought along for the mission were still safely intact as C-Sha had made sure to pack them all inside military-grade armored cases just to be safe (It really went without saying that Blanc and C-Sha had prepared for the inevitable Ram-pocalypse that would occur on-board).

Seeing that the indoor fireworks display had finally ended, Rom cautiously peeked out from behind her sister's back to observe the damage.

"I think I see why big bro told you to be careful with that staff..."

Ram just gave a sheepish laugh in response to her sister's comment. After quickly depositing the weapon of mass destruction into her inventory, Ram walked over to the face-down Vert with Rom following close behind.

"Hey, wake up! Sync says we're about to reach Lastation soon!"

Vert simply let out an incoherent mumble to this as a cluster of Warp Stars seemed to fly in orbit around her head.

"Um, I think you might have knocked her out again," Rom quietly noted.

Ram seemed somewhat perplexed by this as she looked down at the unmoving goddess. "That's weird. Blanc always gets up after I drop a fireball on her face." She brought a hand up to her chin as she seemed to think intensely for a few seconds. "Hmm... Maybe I should move on to phase two then?"

"What's phase two?" Rom asked, tilting her head a bit in confusion.

The temperature in the cargo hold seemed to drop a good fifty degrees as Ram suddenly gave a wicked grin.

"I'm gonna freeze her boobs off."

An impossibly fast blur of movement occurred at these words, generating a gust of wind strong enough to blow away both of the twins' hats. One moment, Vert had been lying flat on the ground like a dead fish; the next, she was standing straight up with her arms crossed protectively over her ample chest.

"NO ONE TOUCHES THE MELONS!"

An awkward silence fell over the hold as Vert continued to look down thunderously at Ram while the twins simply stared back at her with their hairs looking comically windswept and their mouths hanging wide open.

In the end, it was Ram who managed to recover first as she let out a disappointed grumble while dispersing the ice magic gathered in her hands. "Darn. And I really wanted to collect the bounty Blanc put out for those."

Having recovered enough sense to understand human speech again, Vert could not help but raise an eyebrow at this. "Blanc set out a bounty for my breasts?"

Ram gave a small nod as she turned around and walked over to pick up the fallen hats. "Yeah, 50 million Credits alive; 25 million dead."

"How would you even- wait, no. Never mind. I don't want to know."

Putting aside that rather disturbing piece of information, Vert lowered her arms and took a moment to take in her surroundings. Upon realizing that she was on a moving airship, she immediately covered her face with her hand and let out a long, suffering sigh.

"Please tell me we're not actually going through with that boy's crazy plan," she plaintively asked, hand still covering her face.

Ram's exuberant tone was more than enough of an answer on its own. "You mean our super special awesome mission to Lastation? Duh, of course we're still doing it! It'd be lame to skip out on an epic adventure like this! In fact, we actually came here to wake you up and tell you that we're already almost there!"

The air around Vert seemed to deaden even more as she let out another sigh.

"Lovely..."

It was only after wallowing around in her misery for a few more minutes that Vert realized that she was still wearing the parka and scarf that C-Sha had bought for her. Feeling herself starting to overheat a little (it probably had something to do with the fiery explosion from earlier), Vert quickly took off her heavy winter clothing and deposited them into her inventory.

"Fine then," she finally sighed, straightening out her usual green dress she had been wearing underneath. "We might as well get this over with. Take me to the bridge."

Having put their hats securely over their heads again, Ram and Rom grabbed onto each of Vert's hands and began to eagerly pull her away towards the main party.

It probably said a lot about Vert's mental state at that moment when her inner Per-Vert barely let out a half-hearted 'Yay...' at the physical contact.

* * *

"Why was there a large explosion from the cargo hold earlier?"

Ram tried her best to look as innocent as possible (which really was not working out too well) as C-Sha stared down at her with a stern look.

"Um... technical difficulties?" Ram said with a weak grin.

Luckily for the trouble-making twin, Sync decided to casually cut his way into the conversation.

"I'm sure it's nothing. We're still airborne and they even brought back sis with them. In the end, I'd say that's all that really matters."

C-Sha still kept on her disapproving look while Ram discretely gave Sync a thumbs-up.

"Are the supplies still intact?" C-Sha asked, turning to Rom instead.

"Y...Yes," the older twin answered. "None of the cases were damaged... much."

This seemed to be enough to satisfy the Gold Third Leader as she gave a small sigh along with a slight nod of her head.

"Okay then," Sync announced, clapping his hands cheerfully. "Now that we're all here, let's finally get down to business. Actually, before we begin, how are you holding up sis?"

"Don't call me sis," Vert automatically replied, her voice sounding as dead as a Level 1 Dogoo facing off against Iris Heart.

Sync only seemed more enthused by the flat response. "Great! Now then, I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that I've accidentally warped us quite a distance away from Noire's secret resistance base. Well, secret might not apply anymore considering that a bunch of fans are currently assaulting it. Regardless, the navigation system calculated that it's going to take us around forty minutes to get to our destination even at full speed. Given what I'm detecting from the battlefield right now, Noire and her forces won't be able to hold out for that long and will be completely overwhelmed by the time we get there."

Despite his grim news, Sync seemed to remain as upbeat as ever as he continued on speaking with a smile. "The good news, however, is that I've got a plan."

C-Sha, Vert, and the Hunters all let out a weary groan to this as they prepared themselves for whatever over-the-top idea the boy had no doubt in store for them this time.

"Don't worry," Sync assured them with an even bigger smile (which only served to unnerve his audience even more). "It's nothing too fancy, really. My suggestion is that we simply split off an advance team from our party and get them to stall the enemy for a bit."

One of the Hunters spat out the sandwich he had been eating in surprise. "What?! Are you insane?! We only have-" He paused to make a brief count of all the people in the room. "-nine people in total! Even with all of us combined, we'd have a hard time fending off those fans!"

His words seemed to have some effect on Sync as he crossed his arms and suddenly put on a thoughtful look. "Huh. I never really thought about it like that. Nine people in total..." A wide grin suddenly appeared on his face. "We should totally call ourselves 'The Fellowship of the Nep!'"

There was a collective _slap_ as the four Hunters, C-Sha, and Vert all facepalmed simultaneously. Ram and Rom, meanwhile, were busy giggling as they too got the reference (they had watched the movies).

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't work," Sync continued, his amused smile belying the thoughtful expression he was trying to maintain. "People might think our goal is to throw Neptune into a volcano if we use that name."

After basking in the large amount of exasperation exuding from the adult group, Sync decided to spare them from any further trolling and put on his semi-serious demeanor again. "Ahem. Getting back on track, I'm planning on teleporting myself along with one other volunteer to help Noire hold the line until the rest of our group arrives."

"Why just one?" C-Sha asked, finally removing her hand from her face. "Why don't you just teleport the entire airship? You've had no trouble doing that while dragging us through all those alternate dimensions."

Vert gave a confused look to this which was completely overlooked due to everyone else keeping their attention on Sync.

"Heh heh... That's the thing," Sync said, scratching the back of his head in an embarrassed manner. "I'm kinda running low on energy at the moment. If I don't want to end up fainting as soon as I reach the battlefield, I can only expend enough energy to carry one other person with me. And before you ask, I need to go along for the warp as well. I still haven't gotten the hang of warping other people over long distances without tagging along to pinpoint the target destination myself."

Before anyone could even give this any thought, Ram's arm immediately shot into the air.

"Oh, pick me! Pick me!" the younger twin shouted, jumping up and down (like a kangaroo!). "As your master, I order you to take me with you!"

"Um... I... I want to go with you as well, big bro," Rom said shyly, eliciting another mental scream from Vert at the way she referred to him. "Maybe you could squeeze in both of us for the trip?"

Much to everyone's surprise, Sync shook his head in response to the twins before giving them an apologetic look. "Sorry, but no can do. Blanc would quite literally tear out my stomach and feed it back to me if she found out I took either of you on a mission like this. And that's only if she's in a good mood."

Seeing the twins about to loudly protest his decision, he quickly continued on. "Besides, it'll be more awesome if you two swoop in at the last second to save the day. All I'll be doing is stalling the enemy until the main reinforcements arrive. And I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem nearly as heroic in comparison."

There was a tense silence as Ram crossed her arms and seemed to think about this for a few seconds.

"Well, I guess it makes sense for the main characters to wait a bit before their big reveal," she eventually said, much to the relief of everyone else on board. "Fine, me and Rom will show up later to show everyone how to really kick butt! Just make sure you don't beat all the fans and hog all the glory for yourself before we get there!"

Sync silently looked over at Rom first to make sure he had her approval as well. After receiving a small nod from her, he gave the two of them a quick salute.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Off to the side, two buxom ladies were viewing this entire interaction with completely contrasting expressions and thoughts.

On one end, C-Sha was appraising Sync with an impressed look. If he had not managed to deal with the situation as skillfully as he did, she was sure that Ram would have blown the airship clean out of sky by throwing a large temper tantrum. Rom would not have been any better as she would have either A) aided Ram in tearing up the place or B) started crying. Considering that C-Sha had once seen an A-Rank boss monster kill itself in shame for causing those heart-wrenching, teary eyes to appear, she was very glad that neither of those two scenarios had occurred. In fact, the Gold Third leader thought that Sync deserved a medal for not only getting the twins to agree to something but also for doing so without threatening to smash their heads in with a hammer. In that aspect at least, C-Sha believed that Blanc could afford to learn a thing or two from Sync.

Meanwhile, on the flip-side of things, Vert was busy glowering at Sync with a look of intense jealousy. It honestly bugged her to no end that the brat could simply waltz in and win over the affections of the twins while she had tried and failed to brainwash them into becoming her own younger sisters for countless decades. In fact, now that she thought about it, Vert was pretty sure that the boy was using his 'Gary-Stu powers' (as Neptune would no doubt call it) to seduce the twins for himself. After all, why would playing with them and constantly catering to their whims be more effective at winning over the twins when she herself had offered to dress them up in numerous cute outfits and to constantly hug them against her lovely breasts every day? There was simply no logical reason why Ram and Rom would prefer the company of the trouble-making brat over her own voluptuous presence without some devious Gary-Stu powers influencing them. At this thought, Vert decided she would have to smother Ram and Rom even more from now on in order to break the spell the boy obviously had over them.

"Um... hello? Gamindustri to sis? Is anyone in there?"

Vert was snapped out of her musings as the accursed boy in question suddenly waved his hand in front of her face.

"Don't call me sis," she growled out, angrily brushing his hand aside.

The hostile response barely seemed to faze him though as he lowered his arm with a large grin.

"Well, looks like you're finally back. I was starting to wonder how long you were going to keep daydreaming about suffocating Ram and Rom with your boobs."

Vert felt her eyes widen in surprise. Did his Gary-Stu powers also give him the ability to read other people's minds? Well, she supposed there was also the chance she had muttered her thoughts aloud and- no, it was definitely his Gary-Stu powers. He was a Gary-Stu who was out to steal all of her potential younger sisters from her and there was no way she was going to think otherwise.

"What do you want?" she asked, crossing her arms in annoyance.

The boy did a fine job of ignoring the aura of enmity she was radiating towards him as he answered her question with an even larger smile. "I was just wondering if you could come with me as part of the advance party. I'm going to need a heavy-hitter down there to stall for enough time so that means our options are either you or C-Sha. And while I wouldn't mind having C-Sha as a partner, I figured it'd be nice to spend some more time with you sis."

Vert was just about to scoff at his offer when she took note of the hopeful look in his eyes. It was not quite the puppy-dog stare of Ram or Rom's but it was enough to melt away the dark thoughts she had held against him just moments before. While a part of her suspected that this was all just a set-up for another one of his pranks, his honest expression quickly wiped away that doubt.

Not for the first time in recent memory, Vert found herself locked in a serious mental dilemma inside her mental landscape. On one side, Jedi Vert was leading a small yet vocal group telling her to accept the boy's offer and use the opportunity to get to know him better. According to them, most of the negative attitude she held towards him was due to a lack of understanding between them so this was the perfect chance for her to bond with him. However, Darth Vert (who looked an awful lot like Chika underneath her hooded robes) loudly spoke out against this idea. Asides from ranting about how they should just kill the insufferable little Gary-Stu (something which many of the Verts were starting to agree to), she also brought up the important fact that going with the boy meant diving headfirst into a swarm of Noire's fans. This struck a heavy blow against the Light Side's arguments as not many Verts were willing to risk their lives for a simple bonding session. Even so, Jedi Vert continued to press on about the importance of fostering peace between them and the boy.

The friendship speech continued on for a few more seconds until Darth Vert eventually lost her patience and lunged at her counterpart with a red, laser-tipped spear. Jedi Vert saw the attack coming though and immediately pulled out her own blue laser spear and parried the blow. The crowd of Verts hardly seemed surprised by this though as they casually moved to the sides to watch the two clashing personas from a safe distance. In the background, DJ Vert even put on a remix of "Duel of the Fates" on her sound set to accompany the fierce battle.

"Um... I think she zoned out again," a Hunter eventually remarked, taking in the CPU's vacant expression. "By the way, does anyone else hear a bunch of lasers clashing?"

With a small sigh, C-Sha put a hand on Sync's shoulder. "I think it'll be safer if I go with you. Vert's probably still recovering from... whatever it was Ram did to her."

"Hey! It was just one small explosion, okay?" Ram froze with a sheepish look when everyone except for Vert, Rom, and Sync turned to raise an eyebrow at her. "It didn't hurt her _too_ much. Well, I guess she also did smash into a metal wall though so..."

Thankfully for her, C-Sha decided they were too short on time for a lecture so she simply settled for giving another sigh. Sync, meanwhile, just gave a slightly disappointed look towards his still-frozen sister before turning to face everyone else with his standard grin.

"Alright, guess our party's decided then. C-Sha and I will head out as soon as we've geared up. Oh, and remember, tranquilizers and stunners only. We don't want Noire biting off our heads for wiping out her citizens. Even if they are a deranged mob terrorizing the entire world at the moment."

"Awww... but I really wanted to blow up those dummies," Ram pouted.

"Um... we can still freeze them though, right?" Rom asked, hoping this would be enough to appease her violent sister.

Sync thought about this for a few seconds before giving a shrug. "Eh, why not. A little frostbite never hurt anybody."

C-Sha wanted to say something against this but realized that these -were- Noire's fans they were talking about. Better that they lose a few limbs before they ripped off some of hers.

"Alright then Wing Commanders Ram and Rom," Sync announced, giving the twins another salute. "I'm leaving the rest up to you."

"We've got this!" Ram replied, getting over her earlier disappointment. "We're totally ready to crush those dummies so you better not get a Game Over until then!"

"Be careful big bro," Rom said worriedly.

Sync gave the two of them a large smile as he and C-Sha approached the door leading to the ship's cargo hold.

"Don't worry. I've had plenty of practice avoiding certain death thanks to Chika. Trust me, I'll be fine."

Just as he was about to follow C-Sha through the door though, he suddenly stopped to take one final glance at his dazed sister.

"Oh and sis? Try not to smother Ram and Rom while we're away. I know you probably won't listen to me though, so I'm giving them express permission to freeze your boobs off if you try to suffocate either of them. Have fun!"

Sync quickly left the room with a smile as Vert snapped out of her stupor to give an indignant yell while shielding her chest. Behind her, Ram began to cackle maniacally as she filled her hands with ice magic once more.


	9. Wings of Insanity

**Ch 9: Wings of Insanity**

 **Outskirts of Abandoned Factory  
** **North Lastation  
** **1300 hours**

In all honesty, it was just like Noire's terrible luck to have a large detachment of fans stumble across her resistance force right when they were setting out to retake the Basilicom. While she and her soldiers had managed to hold back the initial swarm of fans, the unexpected skirmish had left Noire's army heavily battered while also leaving most of their major riot-suppression weapons destroyed. To make matters worse, additional fan reinforcements had been called in by the first group as the resistance members slowly found themselves being pushed back until they were pinned down near their base. Not wanting to endanger the civilians hiding inside, Noire had ordered her forces to draw the fight away from the old factory to the much more exposed hilly wastelands that surrounded the area. It was in this location that the last remaining members of the main resistance army found themselves staging what could only be described as their final stand.

"T...There's too many of them! We're not going to make it!"

"Tell my wife and kids that I love them!"

"It's game over, man! Game over!"

"My cabbages!"

Noire could not help but roll her eyes as she continued to listen to the melodramatic yells of her soldiers - as well as the one random cabbage merchant that had the misfortune of getting caught in the crossfire. Sure the situation was pretty bad, what with the unending horde of fans swarming against them and all, but it was still rather embarrassing listening to her fully-trained elites screaming in fear like a bunch of fresh guild recruits going up against a Grand Dogoo. Witnessing this, she could not help but wonder if Neptune had a point about Lastation attracting all of the weirdos in Gamindustri. Considering that she was currently being assaulted by a bunch of her 'devoted fans', Noire had to grudgingly concede that maybe her 'friend' might have been right for once.

"Cut the chatter and reform the line!"

With that sharp command, Noire leaped back into the fray with a stun baton in hand. Landing gracefully in the center of the approaching fans, she quickly lashed out with her weapon and dispatched the three closest enemies around her. The rest of the swarm quickly recovered from this sudden attack though as they all turned as one to focus on their prime target. However, Noire was a CPU for a reason as she used her superhuman speed to avoid the countless hands that reached out to grab/grope her. With practiced ease, she ducked, weaved, and sidestepped around her opponents, all the while zapping them down as she did so. It helped that most of the fans were still wearing their normal civilian outfits which gave her plenty of exposed areas to stun them in. Even the few armored fans in the crowd (mostly her own soldiers who had defected to the fans) fell quickly as she managed to find minor gaps in their protective gear.

In a matter of minutes, she managed to successfully dispatch the majority of of her enemies. After making sure that her soldiers had taken care of the few remaining stragglers, Noire finally lowered her weapon and stooped down to catch her breath.

Her momentary respite did not last for long though as she suddenly felt a large number of eyes staring directly at her. Fearing the worst, she quickly rose back up only to find that it was just her own soldiers staring at her with various awe-struck looks on their faces.

Normally, Noire would have been ecstatic about gaining this much positive attention but she was far too tired and agitated at the moment to properly enjoy her time in the spotlight.

"Stop gawking like a bunch of idiots and get moving!" she shouted out irritably. "We need to set up a proper defensive line before the next group of fans arrive! And for crying out loud, someone get that screaming cabbage merchant off of the battlefield!"

The resistance group barely had time to direct said merchant towards the safety of their base before another wave of fans suddenly appeared from the city proper and barreled straight towards them with a crazed yell. Seeing this, Noire dropped all pretense of keeping a calm and level head and let out a frustrated scream.

"Tranquilizer squadron, cover our flanks!" she yelled out once she calmed down a bit. "Taser guns, provide covering fire from behind the shields! Anyone left with a stun baton, converge around me!"

After receiving a confirmation from her remaining field officers, Noire turned back to the approaching hostiles with her own stun baton in hand. As she tightened her grip on the unfamiliar weapon, Noire could not help but once again wish that she could just activate her HDD, summon her sword, and go full _Revengeance_ on the fan mobs.

As tempting as the idea was though, she knew better than to actually follow through with it. For one, she could already handle the fans just fine in her current form so wasting energy by utilizing her HDD was simply a foolhardy move. More importantly, however, there was the simple yet all-important fact that she could not afford to use lethal force against her fans. Embarrassingly enough, these fans happened to be the main source of her shares thanks to their (excessive) devotion and faith towards her. Even with all the trouble they were causing, she still needed them alive to continue providing power for her.

At this thought, a mental image of Neptune appeared in Noire's head and began to laugh her ass off at the friendless CPU for that sad realization. With another irritated growl, Noire shook her head to dispel the annoying image as she instead focused her attention back to the battle at hand.

By now, the fans had already gotten close enough that Noire's superior vision could make out each individual member within their ranks. Much to her surprise and confusion, however, she saw that these new fans were all wearing a matching set of the standard Lastation guard armor. Since she knew for a fact that only a handful of her main military force had defected, she was sure that these were just basic civilian fans who had been given sets of stolen armor to wear. Just as she began to wonder why these particular fans would be given extra protection, she suddenly realized an extremely disturbing fact: these fans were organized.

While the previous hordes had simply thrown themselves at the resistance like a mindless mob, this new group was charging at them with a very clear formation. While the hilly terrain made it hard to notice at first, three distinct divisions of fans were slowly beginning to take form as they neared them; the first group leading the center charge while the other two fanned out to the sides in a classic flanking maneuver. What was even more frightening though was the absolute coordination of their movements. All of the fans moved forward without breaking their perfectly ordered ranks, almost as if they were an actual group of trained soldiers rather than a rag-tag group of deranged fans.

However, all of these oddities were quickly forgotten about as Noire managed to get a good look at their eyes.

 _What in the world?_ she thought, instinctively getting into a combat stance as her men formed up around her. _Why are their eyes... golden?_

Almost as if to answer her question, the horde of golden-eyed fans suddenly shouted out as one in disturbing unison.

"Kill the Waifu Thief! Take back Noire! The Queen wills it!"

Everything seemed to finally click together in Noire's mind as a single, headache-inducing name entered her thoughts.

 _K-Sha._

Even though she had read the reports about how her... admirer... had terrified most of the fans into accepting her as their leader, it still came as a surprise to see the extent to which the Gold Third member had taken control of the swarm. Judging from the looks of it, K-Sha had apparently managed to create some form of twisted hive mind with her Gold Third powers and was now testing out her newest brood of mind-controlled minions out on the battlefield. While the specifics of it were still lost on Noire, she knew that nothing good could come from this disturbing new development.

"This day just keeps getting better and better," Noire muttered, bracing herself for the oncoming charge.

With another terrifying battle-cry, the swarm took out a wide variety of fan merchandise weapons from their inventories (ranging from poster tubes to wooden versions of Noire's various swords) and surged forward from three different directions at once. Even as her tranquilizer and taser squads shot down dozens of the oncoming fans, the swarm relentlessly charged forward until they smashed directly into the resistance's defensive line.

While most armies would have devolved into a chaotic mess after smashing into the enemy, the swarm managed to maintain their order and pushed forward; practically crushing the resistance's front line underneath their sheer numbers. With tactical coordination that even the most well-trained army could not hope to emulate, the swarm exploited the rebel's disarray and began to systematically pick them apart piece by piece. Even with Noire backing them up, it soon became obvious that the resistance was being overwhelmed.

"Fall back! We're cut off!" one of her soldiers carrying a stun baton yelled out in panic as the tranquilizer squad was overrun several meters away.

Knowing that the fans would not give them enough time to regroup even if they retreated, Noire quickly turned around to face her men.

"Belay that order! Stand your ground!"

The words had barely left her mouth when the fans in the back row suddenly launched a salvo of body pillows against her remaining forces. The sudden onslaught of half-naked - and in some cases, fully nude - pictures of the goddess were enough to momentarily distract even Noire as the entire resistance turned to stare at the lewd missiles. Unfortunately for them, all of the body pillows turned out to be stuffed with a ton of bricks as nearly all of the resistance soldiers were knocked off their feet and rendered unconscious by the unorthodox barrage.

Noire was still blushing a furious red (both from physical exertion as well as witnessing the large collection of deadly body pillows) when a large, hulking fan with ash-white skin and red war paint suddenly rushed forward and used the CPU's brief lapse in awareness to successfully tackle her to the ground.

"For the Swarm!" the fan yelled out, a blank expression on his scarred face as tried to wrap his enormous arms around the struggling goddess.

Unfortunately for Noire, she had dropped her stun baton when she had fallen and was currently pinned down in a position where she could do little more than wriggle about violently in response. The last few members of her resistance tried their best to reach her but were quickly cut off and mercilessly beaten down by the other fans.

Just when Noire thought she would have to headbutt the mind-controlled fan and possibly break open his skull in the process, her attacker suddenly went limp like a Nepgeardam with its power supply cut off. Noire barely had time to process this though before she suddenly found herself being crushed underneath the unconscious giant of a man as he fell directly on top of her.

"Kyaaa! Get off me you pervert!"

The fan made no response to her shrill shout as he continued to enjoy his sudden and mysterious snooze without a care in the world.

As Noire eventually gathered her wits and pushed the fan off of her, she noticed the tranquilizer dart sticking out from the man's butt. Making a face at the sight, she turned her head around to see where exactly the dart had come from.

As her eyes made its way up towards a distant hill, she saw something – or more specifically, _someone_ \- who only served to increase her already dangerously high blood-pressure.

"You!"

With his large coat billowing heroically behind him on some nonexistent breeze and an over-sized tranquilizer gun in his hands, her 'savior' turned out to be none other than Sync himself.

"Thought you might need some help," the Second Most Annoying Person in All of Gamindustri (based on the official Noire Scale of Annoyance) called out with a cheeky grin as he reloaded his weapon. "We came as fast as we could."

Before Noire could say anything, C-Sha suddenly appeared from behind him and immediately leaped forward to beat down the rest of the fans that had tried to sneak up on Noire during the brief interlude.

"This isn't the time to be lying down on the job, Noire," the Gold Third leader said, punching out the last nearby fan as she turned around to pull the dumbstruck CPU back to her feet.

Noire accepted the help while keeping her piercing gaze on the blond boy the whole time. Before she could start yelling at him though, the fans quickly regrouped and began to head directly towards the isolated trio.

"We'll talk later," Noire growled out, reaching down to pick up her fallen stun baton. "For now, just help me deal with these idiots."

Whatever witty line Sync was about to say to her was interrupted by the fans as they finally identified the boy and let out a ground-shaking yell.

"KILL THE WAIFU THIEF!"

With bloodlust practically gleaming off their golden eyes, the swarm immediately made a mad dash towards their hated target. However, C-Sha was not about to let that happen as she moved protectively in front of Sync's position. After a moment of brief hesitation, Noire reluctantly followed suit as well. While she certainly sympathized with the swarm's sentiments, the CPU decided that tolerating the blond pest was a tiny bit more preferable to being captured by her certifiably insane Yandere stalker.

As C-Sha and Noire took up their combat stances, Sync casually raised his rifle again and aimed it towards the oncoming swarm with a smile.

"Guess it's time to kick this battle into overdrive."

With that, he fired off his weapon as C-Sha and Noire made their move.

As the first fan fell to Sync's dart, C-Sha pulled out a pair of stun grenades from her inventory and hurled them towards her foes. As planned, the swarm was caught completely off-guard by the buxom fighter's unconventional weapon as the first few rows were immediately dropped by the blast of intense light and sound. Having been far enough away to avoid the debilitating explosions themselves, C-Sha and Noire quickly took advantage of their enemy's momentary disarray to charge in and devastate the remainder of the front line.

While C-Sha began to rack up her combo-count by knocking down all of the nearby fans with a flurry of lightning fast kicks, Noire decided to see if she could improvise one of her main SP skills to work with her new weapon. After focusing her share energy into her stun baton for a second, the CPU swung her weapon in a horizontal sweep towards the group of fans approaching her.

"Tornado Shock!"

Just as she had hoped, a crescent wave of electrical energy shot out from the swing as it effortlessly zapped down every single one of the charging fans before finally dissipating into the air.

"Ha! That's what you get for messing with the CPU of Lastation!" Noire triumphantly declared, flicking one of her twin-tails in a taunting manner for good measure.

Unfortunately for her, the rest of the swarm regrouped much faster than she had anticipated as they surged forward once again towards the momentarily distracted CPU. Before they could reach her though, a hailstorm of tranquilizer darts suddenly descended upon them and dropped them all like flies. Turning around in surprise, Noire found herself looking at the bizarre sight of Sync telekinetically holding up a large cluster of darts in the air.

Seeing as how his rifle had been designed to only snipe a single target at a time, Sync had apparently decided to launch his ammo directly at the mob with his spatial powers instead. While he had obviously come up with the idea as a spur-of-the-moment act to save Noire, the mass of unconscious fans lying below him clearly spoke volumes as to its effectiveness.

"I got your back, honey!" Sync cheerfully called out, already taking out even more darts from his inventory to test out the full extent of his new technique.

As much as Noire wanted to run up the hill and jab the brat with her stun baton a few times, she knew that her priority right now was to deal with the swarm heading towards her. With a frustrated growl, she turned away from the annoying pest and instead rushed back to the battle at hand.

* * *

Several long minutes of fighting later, K-Sha (or whatever proxy was controlling the current brood) finally decided a change of tactic was needed. The overwhelming power of Noire and C-Sha made it virtually impossible to fight them head on while any attempts to surround them were effectively neutralized by Sync's continuous rain of tranquilizer darts. Trying to split off multiple divisions to make a beeline towards the boy had failed as well as he had simply shot them all down with his strange floating darts while the fans struggled to climb up the steep hill he was on.

Deciding that taking out the long-range support was their first priority, the fans in back row simultaneously took out a bunch of brick-filled body pillows again (these ones showing Noire in a variety of revealing swimsuits) and hurled them towards the boy.

Sync, however, only looked mildly amused by all of this as he casually lifted up a hand towards the oncoming missiles.

"Sorry, but I don't think any of those bikinis suit my wife," he declared with a smile, pointedly ignoring Noire's indignant screams coming from down below. "Here, you can have these back."

With that, all of the body pillows were swallowed up by a multitude of shimmering green ripples that suddenly appeared throughout the air. Before the fans could process what was happening, the strange portal-like distortions shot the brick-filled pillows back towards their original owners. With multiple resounding thuds, the swarm's artillery squad was utterly decimated by their own projectiles.

"Guess all that practice of redirecting Chika's spears finally paid off," Sync remarked, the battlefield momentarily silent as everyone looked up at him in surprise and disbelief.

The silence did not last long, however, as the one controlling the fans finally seemed to mentally snap at this. With a synchronized scream of rage and frustration, all of the remaining fans grouped up as one and charged forward with reckless abandon.

Sync's smile quickly faltered as he took in this terrifying sight from atop his vantage point. Even with all of the work the three of them had done, there were still well over a hundred fans gathered in the oncoming charge. While Noire and C-Sha could have easily taken on such odds at full strength, they were currently far too exhausted from the prolonged fight to hold back a mob of this size. To make matters worse, he was starting to run out of tranquilizer darts to support his two teammates. With the two front line fighters out of energy and supplies running low, the situation was looking extremely dire.

After a momentary silence, Sync suddenly let out a sigh as he seemed to come to a decision.

"Well... guess I have no choice then."

Uttering those words, Sync quickly deposited his rifle into his inventory before aiming his hands towards his allies. Much to their surprise, C-Sha and Noire suddenly found themselves covered in a glowing green light before they were teleported off of the battlefield.

However, it quickly became apparent that things had not gone exactly as Sync had planned as his teammates ended up reappearing about a thousand Neps (or approximately fifteen hundred meters for anyone not using the Ultra-Planeptune unit of measurement) above the hill rather than on the ground next to him.

"UWAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Even as she fell from the sky, Noire dutifully carried out her role as Gamindustri's number one landing cushion by crashing into the ground first, allowing C-Sha to break her own fall on top of her. While her share energy absorbed most of the impact like it always did, Noire still looked very much worse for the wear as she continued to lay face-down in the middle of the gigantic crater she had made. C-Sha did not seem to be doing too well either as she lay on top of her twin-tailed cushion with a dazed look of her own.

After looking back and seeing that his allies were (mostly) alright, Sync put his smile back on before returning his attention to the swarm.

"Let's see how you deal with this," he called out, swinging his arms around to point towards the oncoming fans. Share energy immediately began to coalesce within his hands as his entire body seemed to glow bright green from the gathered energy. With a final smirk towards his oblivious targets, Sync unleashed his attack.

"Share Storm!"

The entire wasteland seemed to light up for a brief moment as an enormous concentration of green share lightning suddenly descended upon the landscape. With a terrifying roar of thunder, the entire area below the hill was drowned in a sea of electrical devastation. The grouped-up fans had no chance of evading this as they were immediately caught in the center of it all and were struck down like a bunch of insects in an over-sized bug zapper.

The awe-inspiring spectacle only lasted for a few seconds though before the storm came to an abrupt end. As quickly as it had appeared, the raging mass of electrical energy dispersed into the winds as if it had never existed at all. The only evidence as to its devastating existence was the large mass of unmoving fans that were now lying at the bottom of the hill.

C-Sha and Noire – both of whom had recovered in time to witness the attack – simply stared at the boy with open mouths as they tried to process what had just happened. While such flashy attacks were extremely commonplace in Gamindustri, it was still surprising to see it coming from the carefree boy who's biggest skill up till now had been his incessant trolling.

Before either of them could speak up though, Sync slowly lowered his arms and let out a shaky breath.

"Guess I... overdid it a bit..."

With that, he collapsed face-first onto the ground.

"Sync!"

"Brat!"

Finally getting over their shock, C-Sha and Noire disentangled themselves from each other (a scene that could have sparked several volumes of Yuri doujinshi if someone had been around to witness it), and got to their feet before racing over to the boy.

Much to their relief, they found that Sync was still breathing when they turned him over to check on his status. Seeing that he was simply knocked out, C-Sha quickly pulled out a Life Fragment from her inventory and used it on him.

As the glow from the item faded away, Sync blearily opened his eyes again and slowly tried to focus on the two concerned faces looking down at him. After finally seeming to recognize who his saviors were, he gave a tired grin up at them.

"Heh... what's with the worried look dear?" he asked Noire in a weak yet teasing voice. "It's not like you to be so emotionally expressive."

The CPU immediately smacked him on the head for this, though the blow was a lot softer than expected. "Idiot! Don't scare me like that! I can't kill you if you kill yourself first, you moron!"

Sync gave an amused chuckle to this as he allowed C-Sha to help him sit up. "Thanks," he told the older woman with a small smile before turning back to Noire. "Don't worry dear. It'll take a lot more than that to separate me from my beloved little Tsun-Tsun."

Noire immediately went into a classic Tsundere frenzy at this as she spluttered about incoherently while making various threatening motions towards Sync with her hands.

C-Sha on the other hand, simply looked out at the devastated battlefield before turning to face the boy with an inquisitive look.

"What exactly was that attack you just used right now?"

Noire finally stopped her raging as she quieted down to hear the answer as well.

"It's just one of my EXE Drives," Sync casually dismissed with a shrug. "Nothing really worth bragging about. Just... don't expect me to pull it off again for a while."

Both C-Sha and Noire shared a frown at this. While it was obvious that Sync was deliberately deflecting the issue, neither of them wanted to press the matter on the exhausted boy. Plus, he had just saved them all from being overrun by the fans and they felt they owed it to him to at least not pester him about the details if he was unwilling to talk.

With a tired sigh, Noire instead chose to cross her arms and faced him with a mildly annoyed look. "If you had an effective AoE skill like that, why didn't you simply lead with it? It definitely would've saved us all a lot of time, you know."

Sync gave a sheepish laugh as he scratched the back of his head. "Well... I thought we could handle the fans the old-fashioned way at first. Guess I severely underestimated just how much of a fight the swarm would put up. Besides, the fans were too spread out when C-Sha and I first got here for me to effectively neutralize all of them. The only reason I was able to perform a field wipe just now was because we managed to cut down their numbers and forced them to group up into an easy-to-hit target."

After fully processing this, C-Sha and Noire both gave a small nod as they accepted his reasoning.

"Also, the twins would have killed me for ending the battle before they got here," Sync quickly added under his breath. He gave a slight wince as he imagined the earful he would no doubt receive from Ram and Rom for doing just that.

"What was that?" Noire asked, fixing him with a suspicious glare.

"Ah, nothing..."

Noire kept her glare on him for a moment longer before glancing down at the mass of unmoving fans below her.

"You didn't kill any of those idiots, did you?" she asked sharply.

Sync gave another weak chuckle before answering. "I don't think I had enough energy left in me to make the attack anywhere near lethal. The worst they're probably suffering from is some minor burns and loss of bowel control."

Noire made a disgusted face at this but otherwise said nothing.

After a few minutes, Sync managed to get back up to his feet again, albeit a bit shakily.

"So... what now?"

Noire gave another sigh as she looked back down at the field of bodies from atop the hill. "My reserve team should still be inside the base guarding the civilians we rescued. We'll call them out to help us revive the knocked out resistance members. As for the fans, I'm sure there's an unused part of the factory that we can lock them up in for the time being."

C-Sha gave a nod to this as she decided to take point. Sync, meanwhile, simply gave a wide smile as he slowly walked up next to Noire.

"You know, I don't I can walk that far on my own just yet. I really don't want to burden you with this, but could you perhaps carry me the rest of the way, dear? I'll make sure to give you that full body massage you love so much in return once this is all over."

Noire's face immediately turned the color of an overripe tomato as she reached forward with the full intent of strangling the boy. However, C-Sha suddenly spoke up before the red-faced goddess could end up adding 'child-strangler' to her already less-than-stellar list of social descriptions.

"I hate to interrupt you two lovebirds but... the natives are getting restless."

Noire did not get a chance to express her outrage at C-Sha's choice of words as the ground itself suddenly began to quake. With a shared nervous glance, both Sync and Noire turned towards the direction of their third party member and looked off into the far distance. Much to their horror, they found that the source of the ominous shaking was none other than a massive fan army at least twice the size of the previous one. Apparently, K-Sha had just recovered from the loss of her mind-controlled brood and was now sending every last fan in the nearby area to finish the job.

"Note to self," Sync suddenly said, "Always keep up spatial senses to detect oncoming dangers."

Deciding to put her anger on hold until her own life was not in immediate danger, Noire turned to face the trouble-making kid with a pointed glare.

"I really hope you have another magical solution for this..."

Sync stayed silent for a few seconds before he suddenly perked up as if noticing something. After giving a small laugh, he turned to face the confused CPU with a confident smile.

"Noire, you know I've always got a card to play."

As if on cue, a heavily-armed Lowee airship along with Ram and Rom in their HDD forms flew past their heads and headed directly towards the fans.

"Pick a goddess and pray!" the pilot Hunter yelled out, a cut-in of his face briefly flashing through the air as he did so.

"Um, wouldn't they all just pick Lady Noire since they're her fans?'" the Hunter next to him pointed out. "Also, since when could you make cut-ins of yourself appear like that?"

"Stop ruining my moment and just fire the turrets!"

With that interesting conversation out of the way, the Hunters activated all of the ship's weapons. Thankfully, they had remembered Sync's orders not to kill the fans as they had reloaded the turrets with miniature stun grenades rather than actual bullets. The overall effect was still just as devastating though as the torrential rain of debilitating explosives effectively immobilized the entire oncoming swarm.

This only turned out to be the opening act, however, as Ram and Rom flew in to play their part once the airship had cleared the bombing site.

"E-Force Blizzard!"

"Ice Coffin!"

The few fans that were starting to recover from the grenade blasts had just enough time to look up in surprise before a miniature ice age descended upon them. For several seconds, nothing could be seen except an endless onslaught of snow and ice as the twins gleefully unleashed a magical barrage that could have frozen the entirety of the Underworld over... twice. By the time the attack finally came to an end, the entire swarm had been transformed into the world's largest collection of human-shaped ice-sculptures as Ram and Rom proudly looked down at their handiwork.

"Ha! Looks like we were just too _cool_ for these dummies to handle!" Ram said with a wide smirk.

"Uh huh! We sure _snowed_ on their parade!" Rom giggled in response.

Laughing to themselves over their puns, the two heroes flew off to make sure there were no other fans remaining in the nearby area.

Back down on ground level, Sync gave off a salute towards the direction of the twins before turning back around to face his dumbfounded 'wife'.

"Well... that takes care of that," he declared, a mischievous smile suddenly appearing on his face as he leaned in close to her. "Now then, why don't we end things properly by sharing a romantic kiss over the battlefield?"

A fist made contact with the back of his head in way of an answer.

While Noire began to unleash all of her pent up rage by screaming at Sync, C-Sha gave an amused smile before deciding to give the two lovebirds some room. Knowing that the couple's spat would likely last for a while longer, the Gold Third leader decided she might as well contact the resistance's reserve squad and get started on the massive clean-up detail. After everything that had happened, there had to be at least several hundred unconscious and frozen bodies littered across the wasteland; all of which needed to be identified and dealt with accordingly. Preparing herself for the tedious work ahead, she slid down the hill and headed off towards the base in the distance.

Meanwhile, Noire spent the next several minutes ranting and raving at Sync before finally stopping to catch her breath.

"Feeling better now?" Sync asked, casually munching on some potato chips he had brought out half-way through the incoherent screaming.

Noire probably would have continued to shout at him if she had not been too busy trying get some air back into her system. Instead, she simply opted to glare at the boy while he continued to regard her with the same tired yet amused look he had worn throughout the entire rant.

After finally managing to recover both physically and mentally, Noire silently looked down at the former battlefield once more before giving a large sigh.

"This doesn't change anything between us," she declared, glaring back at Sync as he tied up his unfinished bag of chips and put it back into his inventory. "Once this is all over, I'm still going to make you pay for causing all of this trouble in the first place." There was an awkward pause as she suddenly looked away from him with an irritated huff. "Still, I guess you and your team did just save me here today so... thanks."

The last part came out as a barely audible grumble but Sync seemed to understand it all the same. As he gave Noire a smug look that made her want to punch his head in again, the airship finally finished its scanning sweep of the area and circled back down towards their position. After acknowledging the ship with a small wave, the Second Most Annoying Person in All of Gamindustri (who was quickly rising up to the position of First) turned back to the irritated goddess with a smile.

"All in a day's work... dear."

The cinematic scene of Sync standing over the war-torn battlefield with an airship landing dramatically behind him was somewhat marred by Noire throwing her shoe at his face.


	10. Yandere of the Swarm

**Ch 10: Yandere of the Swarm**

 _I am the Swarm..._

 _Armies will be shattered..._

 _Nations will burn..._

"My Queen. All preparations are complete. We await your command."

K-Sha roused herself from her thoughts, her vision of standing atop the corpses of her fallen enemies slowly fading away as she found herself back on the rooftop of an abandoned office building.

Opening her glowing, golden eyes, she impassively glanced down from her vantage point to inspect her gathered forces. Arrayed throughout the ruins of the once lively border city, an innumerable legion of fans stood at attention before her. Thousands upon thousands of troops - nearly a third of Lastation's entire population in total - stared up at her with golden eyes of their own; each fan tightly bound to her overriding will of making Noire her own.

Staring out at her swarm, K-Sha could not help but give a chill-inducing laugh. Noire and the Waifu Thief might have managed to wipe out her expeditionary brood, but their futile struggle was soon coming to an end. Against the full might of the swarm, they would be powerless to stop her from obtaining her goal. The damnable boy would die and then she and her beloved would be together forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and-

"My Queen?" her attendant asked hesitantly. "Is everything alright?"

K-Sha immediately shot a glare at the young man in the butler outfit, causing him to shrink back in fear under his master's piercing gaze. After sufficiently terrifying the poor attendant for interrupting her thoughts, she turned back around to face her army. The golden light in her eyes momentarily intensified as she telepathically addressed her minions with a crazed smile.

 _The time of our victory is at hand! Unleash the full fury of the Swarm!_

The mass of fans answered with a collective war-cry that shook the very skies themselves. After receiving their respective mental orders from K-Sha, the fans quickly sectioned themselves into multiple battalions and boarded the fleet of stolen transport helicopters at the edge of the city. Once all of the troops had been loaded, the mind-controlled pilots activated their aircraft's automatic navigation system and inputted their target location.

As the sea of black helicopters rose up around her, K-Sha gave a satisfied smile as she closed her eyes and slipped back into her thoughts once more.

 _And now..._

 _on this day at last..._

 _Noire shall be mine._

* * *

Out of all the airship flights she had taken, Vert could confidently say that the one she had just been on had been the absolute worst.

Locking herself inside the cargo hold to escape Ram had seemed like a good idea at the time but she had forgotten to take into account just how long the ride would be. Having to sit on the cold metal floor for nearly an hour would have been bad enough but there had also been a large amount of turbulence which had only served to make her life more miserable. In fact, she had almost regretted not following the boy after one of the armored equipment cases was shaken off an overhanging shelf and landed right on her head.

However, even with her concussed head and stiff body, Vert concluded that staying aboard the airship had been the right decision after all after seeing the field of unconscious bodies upon landing. While everyone had been too busy sorting out the fainted crowd to tell her what exactly had happened, the ragged shape of Noire and the advance party had made it obvious that the battle had not been an easy one.

Once everyone had been properly identified and sorted, the Hunters and the Resistance reserve squad members busied themselves with reviving and healing their allies with the supplies brought aboard the airship. As for the defeated fans, they had all been locked up in the factory's lower level and magically frozen in a gigantic block of ice, courtesy of the twins.

With all that taken care of, the main characters - Noire, Sync, Ram, Rom, C-Sha, and Vert to be exact – gathered inside the Resistance's command center (AKA the disused factory's meeting room) and filled each other in on their respective details.

"So let me get this straight," C-Sha said, interrupting Noire's retelling of what had happened before the rescue team had arrived. "Are you saying that K-Sha's found some way to mind-control every single one of those crazy fans?"

The twin-tailed CPU gave a curt nod as she crossed her arms. "That's what it looked like. You saw how coordinated those fans were while attacking us. Not to mention their obvious golden eyes. I think it's pretty clear that K-Sha's found some way to use her Gold Third powers to take over their brains. Or whatever singular nerve cell those idiots operate on." She paused as she shot a glare at the opposite end of the rectangular conference table that everyone was seated around. "Actually, I was rather hoping _someone_ would be able to give us some more details about all of this."

Vert, along with everyone else in the room, turned as well to stare at the target of Noire's ire.

Despite all the attention he was getting, Sync barely seemed to notice anything as he instead chugged down the third can of Nep Bull he had opened up since the meeting had started. Strangely enough, he had been entirely silent for most of the meeting; something which had immediately caught Vert's attention.

She had initially thought that he was simply plotting some kind of prank, but his tired demeanor and large consumption of healing items quickly wiped away that thought. Whatever had happened before she and the airship had arrived, it had clearly exhausted the boy quite a bit. And while he had done his best to maintain his usual carefree demeanor up to this point, his fatigue was clearly starting to show itself now.

Seeing him in this state, Vert could not help but feel a slight pang of guilt in her conscience. As annoying as the boy was, she still felt bad seeing him completely worn out from a battle that she herself had shied away from. While she was not sure if going with him instead of C-Sha would have made much of a difference, it would have at least made her feel less guilty about the whole situation. Of course, that was not to say she was actually worried about him (that would have been ridiculous) but rather she was more disappointed in herself for not fulfilling her duties as a CPU to protect Gamindustri from whatever threats it faced. Or at least, that was what most of her personas agreed to believe in.

While Vert shook her head in an attempt to prevent another mental argument between her Light and Dark sides, the boy in question finished his drink and spoke up before anyone else could take note of his strange bout of inactivity.

"What makes you think I have any idea how Yandere powers work?" he asked Noire with a smile, his energy obviously returning thanks to all the sugary drinks he just had. "I mean, I know I like to express my love for you dear but I-"

Whatever else he was trying to say was cut off when Ram, who was sitting next to him, suddenly punched him on the arm.

"Stop acting like she's your wife!" the younger twin shouted indignantly. "I thought we agreed that you're our property!" On the other side of Sync, Rom nodded fervently in agreement.

The boy simply gave a sheepish grin to this while rubbing his sore arm. Meanwhile, Vert gave a frustrated growl at the twin's continued attachment towards him while C-Sha tried her best to stifle her laughter at the kids' antics. As for Noire, she just seemed thoroughly confused as to why Ram of all people was saving her from being teased again.

Deciding that he should get back to the topic at hand before the twin-tailed CPU could throw even more questions at him, Sync quickly resumed talking.

"Ahem. While I can't say that I've ever created a hive-mind of my own before, I think I might have a plausible theory as to how K-Sha did it."

"Well, spit it out then," Noire demanded, reverting back to her previously annoyed mood. "We don't exactly have all day, you know."

Sync casually dragged out the silence with a smile as if begging to differ. Just when it seemed that Noire would lunge across the table to strangle him, he finally offered up his explanation.

"As you've guessed, this is more than likely a result of K-Sha's Gold Third power. From what I've read, it's a modified version of our own share energy and we all know just how nonsensical that can be. I mean, it's practically our Deus-ex-Machina that allows us to acquire new transformations and perform scripted plot attacks to achieve an otherwise improbable happy ending. Given that, I think it's safe to assume that our Yandere Queen's powers reacted to her... obsession with you and allowed her to enslave the feral fans in order to help her achieve her own 'happy ending'."

The Lastation CPU silently took in this meta explanation before covering her face with her hand and letting out a sigh.

"You've been spending way too much time with Neptune..."

"Ms. Neptune," Sync corrected with a smile. "You have to make it clear whether you're referring to my tutor or your crush."

Noire really did lunge for his throat this time as steam began to rise from her head. Thankfully, C-Sha managed to react in time and grabbed the red-faced CPU by the back of her dress.

"I have a question about your theory," the Gold Third leader commented, seemingly unfazed by the murderous goddess she was holding back. "If K-Sha really did turn her obsession into a plot device, then why didn't she simply brainwash everyone in Gamindustri with it?"

Sync gave a slight shrug. "I'm guessing it only works on those with the same amount of fanaticism for Noire as she does. It's just our misfortune that so many weirdos share the same stalker-like tendencies for our Tsun-Tsun here."

"Don't call me Tsun-Tsun!" Noire raged, still trying to claw her way forward in a manner very reminiscent of a certain green-haired Oracle.

After waiting several long minutes for the steaming CPU to calm down to her usual level of irritability, the group went back to discussing their current predicament.

"So what exactly is your plan now?" Noire eventually grumbled out, still glaring daggers at the smiling boy. "You might have saved us from that attack but K-Sha still has a nation's worth of fans under her direct control. And unless you've brought along some kind of magical super weapon that can defeat them all, we're just waiting to be overrun by the rest of her forces."

Much to her confusion, Sync answered her with an amused laugh.

"Funny you should say magical super weapon. Because luckily for you, I actually have one. Or rather, two."

For the first time since the meeting started, Noire looked at the boy with something other than anger and annoyance.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her expression caught between suspicion and curiosity.

Sync gave another small laugh while Vert just sighed in preparation for what was to come.

"It's a relatively straightforward solution but an extremely effective one," he continued embellishing. "With it, all of the fans will be completely neutralized in one hit. In fact, I'd say there's a strong likelihood that even K-Sha can be taken down by it."

Curiosity finally won over her doubts as Noire leaned forward expectantly. "Well, what is it?"

Sync put on an amused expression as he casually put his arms around the two smiling Lowee sisters sitting next to him.

"We utilize Ram and Rom's cuteness."

Silence enveloped the room as everyone waited for Noire to react to this reveal. Even Vert managed to hold back her rising jealousy at the boy's contact with the twins as she stared at the other flummoxed goddess instead.

"Utilize... cuteness?" Noire eventually repeated. As Sync and the twins gave a cheerful nod, her usual annoyance slowly returned as she spoke up again in a steadily rising voice. "You... You... I thought you were being serious!"

"I am being serious," Sync casually countered. "All we have to do is broadcast Ram and Rom's puppy-dog eyes to the fans and this uprising is as good as over."

Even knowing about the plan in advance, Vert could not help but give an exasperated sigh while Noire just about exploded.

"You're an idiot!" she screamed out, her composure completely falling away as her frustration with the boy reached its peak. "Are you seriously that stupid?! These fans are obsessed with me, not the twins! Just how the hell is cuteness going to solve our problems?!"

Sync gave a rather theatrical sigh before moving his chair back and gesturing for Ram and Rom to join him in an emergency team huddle.

"Guess we have no choice, team," he said in a barely concealed conspiratorial whisper. "It look like we're going to need to show her just how strong your ultra secret technique is."

"Heh heh. What should we make her do?" Ram asked, instantly on board with the idea.

A mischievous smile appeared on Sync's face as he leaned in closer and told the two his plan in an actual whisper.

After sharing in a fit of small giggles, the twins nodded their heads before disengaging from the huddle. Before she could react, a very confused Noire found herself facing off against both of the smiling sisters.

"What are you two-?"

That was as far as she got before a warm, fuzzy feeling suddenly enveloped her entire mind. The next thing she knew, Noire was skipping along on a bunch of fluffy clouds in her mental landscape while a group of puppies, kittens, bunnies, and all other manner of cute creatures frolicked alongside her. For an unknown amount of time, the CPU happily danced about in this sunlit paradise as all of her worries and stress seemed to magically disappear.

The euphoric feeling eventually faded away though as Noire once again found herself inside the meeting room. For some odd reason though, she realized that she was standing near the doorway rather than sitting in her office chair like before. To make things even stranger, Ram, Rom, and Sync were busy laughing like a group of maniacs while C-Sha and Vert simply stared at her with open mouths.

"What-? What's going on?" Noire asked in utter confusion.

After continuing to stare at her amidst the kids' loud laughter, C-Sha eventually managed to motion downwards with her hand.

With a perplexed expression, Noire looked down at herself before immediately coming to a dead halt.

There, in all it's pink and frilly glory, was her prized magical girl costume that she had spent countless nights working on. And, for some goddess-forsaken reason, she was currently wearing it.

"Wha-? I-? How-?"

Noire's face seemed to turn redder and redder with each of her failed attempts at speaking. Before she could figure out how to actually form words again though, Ram interrupted her.

"I'm MagiGirl Idol Noirina!" she imitated, twirling about in what was no doubt a perfect copy of what she had just seen. "No evildoers will escape from my singing voice of love!"

"Share Prism Powers activate!" Rom followed along, trying to stifle her laughter as she performed a silly-looking dance routine.

Noire continued to remain frozen in place as Rom finished her dance and the three kids began laughing again. After what seemed like hours to the mortified magical idol, Sync faced her with a wide grin.

"You know, I'm pretty sure I saw your partner in another dimension. Want me to go get her so that the two of you can team up and defeat your so-called nemesis, Dark Death Evil Man?"

This finally managed to get a proper reaction out of her as the Tsun-bomb exploded.

* * *

All the way in Ultra-Planeptune, a newly recruited Basilicom guard was going about his designated patrol route when he noticed one of his seniors stationed in front of the CPU's room. For some odd reason, the older guard looked about as nervous as a sentient pudding staring up at a starving Neptune as he visibly quaked in fear. Curiosity getting the better of him, the younger guard decided to see what was going on.

"Is there something the matter here?" he asked, trying his best to sound as professional as possible.

The older guard barely stifled a startled yelp as he jumped up in surprise. After realizing that it was just the new recruit, he quickly calmed down and stared down at his purple-robed counterpart with an angry look.

"Keep it down unless you want to get us both killed!" he hissed, shooting another nervous glance at the CPU's door as he did so.

"Why? What's wrong?" the newcomer asked, thankfully having enough sense to lower his voice as told.

The older guard let out a small sigh as he tried to compose himself. "Lady Plutia was forced to wake up an hour ago to deal with some important paperwork. She managed to finish her work and went back to sleep just now but it's clear that she's in an extremely bad mood from being woken up so early."

"Um... it's half past noon right now," the younger guard pointed out, confusion clear in his voice. "How is that considered early?"

His senior just gave him a deadpan look. "You're joking, right? Where the hell did you even come from to not know about any of this?"

"Ah, I'm from Leanbox," the newcomer answered rather sheepishly. "Hyperdimension Leanbox to be exact. I used to be a guard at the Basilicom there but I decided to leave due to its... hazardous working environment. Anyways, I tried to take up a position in my dimension's Planeptune but my interview got canceled due to a giant robot terrorizing the city for a couple of days. Seeing as how I didn't have any real reason to stay in the Hyperdimension, I figured I might as well take my chances here and-"

"Alright, alright. I didn't ask for your whole life story." After making sure that their boss had not been awakened by their conversation, the older guard gave another sigh and faced his junior with a serious expression. "Look, I'm going to make things real simple for you here. The number one rule of this place is to never, _ever_ piss off Lady Plutia. In fact, just try to avoid her entirely if you can. It's a lot safer that way."

"Oh, come on. She can't be that bad," the younger guard said with optimistic naivete. "I mean, my old boss tried to kill me with an automated Gatling turret. I highly doubt anything can be worse than that."

"Buddy, you're going to begging to be shot with a dozen Gatling turrets if Lady Plutia ever decides to-"

The rest of his words were cut off when an ominous rumbling suddenly shook the building. Before the two guards could figure out what was going on, an unearthly scream echoed across the entire sky.

" _KYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

Despite the ear-piercing sound, the older guard managed to hear something else that made his blood run cold: an irritated growl coming from inside his boss's room.

"Shit. Shit! SHIT! We need to get out of here! Fly you fool!"

"Huh? What?!" the new guard yelled out in confusion, still covering his ears in an effort to block out the strangely embarrassed-sounding screech that was continuing to deafen all of Ultra-Dimension.

Things quickly reached maximum danger status when the sound of an HDD being activated was heard from behind the CPU's door. Deciding it was every man for himself at this point, the older guard ran ahead and readily threw himself down a nearby trash chute.

"H... Hey! What's going on? Why did you- Oh, greetings Lady Plutia! Did this weird screaming wake you up from your-"

That was as far as the poor guard got before the sleep-deprived, sadistic goddess pounced on him.

* * *

"You know, I'm rather surprised you actually had a magical girl outfit with you," Sync said, still trying to stifle his laughter. "Ram and Rom just told you to act like a magical girl for a couple of minutes but we never expected you to head out and dress for the part as well."

Noire just did her best to tune his voice out as she focused on breathing in and out deeply.

After her outburst, the pseudo magical idol had fled into the nearby bathroom and changed back into her normal black dress. By the time she returned, the trouble-making trio had calmed down somewhat, though they still continued to snicker at her from time to time.

"You three are dead," Noire ground out, her meditative attempts to soothe her emotions obviously failing. "Once this is over, I'm going to kill you all. Slowly."

"Good luck passing that request through Blanc and Chika," Sync replied with a smile. "They're the ones who currently hold the rights to kill us and I don't think they're going to hand it over anytime soon."

Noire just let out a murderous growl to this as she ground her teeth in rage.

After sharing a high-five with the twins for the successful prank, Sync turned to the smoldering goddess with a slightly more serious expression.

"I think you can see why I'm confident that Ram and Rom can end this fan threat," he said. "And in case you're still not convinced, consider this: What they just used on you was less than ten percent of their maximum cuteness potential. If they wanted to, I'm sure they could even puppy-dog eyes you into handing over all of Lastation to Neptune."

"What?! There's no way I'd ever fall for something like that!" Noire refuted loudly. Mentally however, she could not help but doubt herself especially considering what she had just been forced to do. As she thought about this, a rather disturbing question suddenly popped into her mind. "Wait. If their brainwashing technique is so powerful, why haven't they taken over all of Gamindustri yet?"

"Because Histoire won't let us," Ram huffed in annoyance. "We tried to get Neptune to make us the new CPUs of Planeptune once but she was too dumb for our cuteness to work. And then she blabbed about it to Histoire like a big, stupid tattletale."

"She told us to never to use our puppy-dog eyes like that again or she'd put us in an infinite time-out," Rom added with a slight shiver. "Miss Histoire can be really scary when she wants to be..."

Everyone in the room could not help but silently nod their heads in agreement to this. Once the ominous silence had passed, Sync cheerfully clapped his hands together as he brought the conversation back on track.

"Luckily for us though, Histoire has agreed to let our two heroes here use their ultimate technique against the fans. Now all we need to do is broadcast their puppy-dog eyes across all of Lastation."

"And just how do you plan on doing that?" Noire growled out, even though she knew full-well that the kid already had an answer.

As expected, Sync did not disappoint.

"We'll just use the broadcast station in the nearby city. It's not quite as powerful as the one back in the capital but if we can access the nation's satellite array from there, we should still be able to cover all of Lastation."

The Tsundere CPU pinched the bridge of her nose as she let out an annoyed sigh. "Why do you know the locations of my nation's broadcast centers? I swear, if you've hacked into my nation's security network, I'm going to stab you with my sword right now."

Sync quirked an amused eyebrow at this. "Oh? Are you worried that I might have uncovered something scandalous in your private database? Maybe something like a bunch of secret photos of yourself in various cosplay outfits?" He gave a brief laugh at Noire's flustered reaction before quickly continuing on. "Relax. I haven't hacked anything... yet. I might get to it later when I get bored but I think we've got more important things to deal with right now. Anyways, the reason I knew about the nearby broadcast station is because I scouted the place while looking for survivors with Ms. Neptune. It's only a few miles from here so if we head out now, we should be able to occupy it within the hour."

Seeing that Noire was still too busy glowering at the boy, C-Sha gave a sigh as she once again took charge of the little group of misfits.

"Let's go get ourselves a broadcast station then."

* * *

For all the trouble that went into explaining the plan, capturing the station itself had been a breeze. Asides from a few golden-eyed scouting parties that they easily dispatched, the heroes encountered no problems at all in completing the first stage of their plan. However, Noire still harbored some doubts about Sync's idea and had prepared accordingly.

To that end, she had brought along all the recovered members of her main army to support the core team. While their numbers were only a fraction of what they used to be, they were still a force to be reckoned with as they were all armed to the teeth with the anti-riot equipment that C-Sha had brought aboard the airship. Meanwhile, the mass majority of her soldiers that had been too injured to fight had been sent with the civilians to hide in a secret military bunker near the mountains. Seeing as how their base was now known to the enemy, the CPU had decided to evacuate her non-combatants to a new, secure location just in case. As an extra safety precaution, Noire had even sent the reserve team to safeguard the group from any monsters that were liable to attack them on their journey.

Thankfully, the refugees seemed to reach their destination without incident as Noire received a call confirming their safe arrival soon after a basic perimeter had been set around the broadcast station. With nothing else to do now but to wait for their technicians to prepare for the nation-wide broadcast, the main characters reconvened once again inside the building's main lobby.

"You know, capturing this place was a lot easier than I thought it would be," Sync commented with a thoughtful look. "I know most of the fans in this city got sent to their frozen doom during the previous battle, but where did all their tanks disappear to? I mean, I distinctly remember there being quite a few of them in this city when I last came here to warp out for reinforcements."

Vert promptly realized that the boy was talking about the time he had ended up in front of her in Lowee after getting hit by a tank shell. If she was remembering correctly, he had complained about the fans having a bunch of aim-assisted tanks deployed throughout the city. Luckily for the group though, they had not run into any of these hacked armored units along the way.

Surprisingly, Noire answered his question with a rather proud grin. "You can thank my technicians for that. All of our tanks were remote-controlled so we were able to regain control of them by hacking back into our control servers and using my security override code. Once that was done I had the tanks moved back to our military compounds and properly sealed off so that they wouldn't block our progress when we set out to recapture the Basilicom."

"And we all know how that turned out, don't we?" Sync added with a sly smile.

The Lastation CPU immediately began scowling again as she turned away from the blond annoyance with a large huff.

"Oh, shut up! At least my plan was a lot more sensible than this ridiculousness," she argued. "Seriously, even Neptune wouldn't have come up with a crazy idea like this."

"Why thank you," Sync replied with a smile. "I'm sure Ms. Neptune would be quite proud to hear about my progress."

"That wasn't a compliment, you moron! And I was talking about the other Neptune!"

After crossing her arms and giving an annoyed sigh, Noire turned towards Vert with a piercing look.

"I never got the chance to ask you this properly, but is this brat seriously your brother?"

Vert felt her eye involuntarily twitch as the entire group turned to stare at her. While everyone had already guessed the pair's relationship thanks to the boy's constant reference to her as 'sis', it was clear that they still wanted to hear her officially confirm the claim. Of course, she had absolutely no intention of doing anything of the sort as she immediately opened her mouth to refute it.

"He's not my-"

Her automatic response faltered, however, when she spared a glance towards the boy. Contrary to all expectations, he did not look the least bit sad or even disappointed by her denial. In fact, he actually wore a strange, satisfied smile as if he was somehow pleased with her answer.

Time seemed to momentarily pause for Vert as she tried to make sense of this bizarre reaction. While she was fairly certain that the boy had responded similarly to her denials in the past, this was the first time that she had ever bothered to pay any attention to it. And now that she did, she found herself completely baffled by his response.

Considering his penchant for calling her 'sis' at nearly every opportunity, it made no sense to her as to why he would be okay with her denying their sibling status. Of course, there was always the chance that he had simply called her that just to annoy her but she got the feeling that this was not the case. Unlike with how he referred to Noire as his wife, there was no joking undercurrent in his voice whenever he called her by that accursed title. Sure, he liked to rub it in her face and bug her with it every chance he got, but he still seemed genuinely sincere about the fact that the two of them were related.

For a while, she continued to struggle to come up with a possible explanation for his odd behavior. As she focused on his smiling face once again though, a tiny voice in her conscience suddenly spoke up.

What if the boy actually _was_ hurt by her constant refusal to acknowledge him? What if his ever-present smile around her was simply a mask for him to hide his true feelings behind?

The CPU quickly shook her head to dispel this ridiculous thought but could not hide from the guilt that accompanied it. As unlikely as this potential scenario was, it opened Vert's eyes to the fact that she had not been exactly... pleasant towards the boy. She had rarely, if ever, treated him with anything other than annoyance and animosity (even if most of it had been deserved) and it was very likely that she had inadvertently upset him. While his constant smiles seemed to indicate otherwise, there was no way of knowing if they were actually real or just a mere facade. After all, Vert had played enough RPGs to know that the constantly smiling characters were always the ones with the darkest emotional baggage.

Suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt at her actions, Vert retreated inwards to see if the rest of her personas could help straighten her thoughts out. Unfortunately, the only thing that awaited her in her mental landscape was complete and utter madness.

As it turned out, her current train of thought had apparently started a massive riot in her mind as the multitude of Verts took this opportunity to shout out their own opinions about the boy in a massive frenzy. At the center of the mental meeting hall, the more sentimental aspects of the goddess were busy crying their eyes out as they proposed that they give the poor kid a hug for all the potential hardships they had caused him. Logical Vert stood next to them looking decidedly annoyed as she desperately tried to calm the bawling group by explaining that this was all just a theory and that there was no proof that the kid was suffering at all. Off to the side, Jedi Vert and Darth Vert resumed their light-spear duel as they continued yelling about loving the boy and hating him respectively. Meanwhile, the PerVert ran around trying to convince everyone that they should use this chance to get closer to the kid so that they could marry him off to some handsome butler later. And as if this was not enough, Cultist Vert decided to show up to the party as well and began preaching about how the boy was the harbinger of the end times and that the great Flying Spaghetti Monster would soon descend upon the world to devour them all.

With a mental facepalm, Vert quickly left the madhouse that was her own mind and reluctantly returned back to reality. What greeted her there was not much better, however, as she found that her audience members were still waiting for her to give them a proper answer regarding the boy.

Not wanting to confirm their relationship but also not wanting to potentially deject the boy any further, Vert decided to take the easy road out and gave the most neutral answer possible.

"That's what Histoire believes anyways," she announced, trying to hide the mental turmoil she was currently feeling behind a large sigh.

As expected, no one in the group seemed particularly satisfied by this half-answer as they all shot her a multitude of unimpressed looks. However, one look in particular differed from the rest which caused her to raise her head and focus her attention towards the person giving it.

As if he had not confused her enough already, Vert found the boy staring directly at her with a serious yet otherwise unreadable expression in response to her answer. His usual carefree demeanor was nowhere to be found as he continued to silently gaze at her as if deep in thought. It wasn't until she locked eyes with him that he finally seemed to realize that he was being watched and quickly turned away. However, in that fleeting moment that they made eye-contact, she managed to identify a single, mind-boggling emotion hidden underneath his poker face.

The boy was worried.

Vert once again found herself at a total loss as she tried desperately to figure out what exactly was going on in the kid's head. Out of all the emotions he could have shown, why was worry the one he chose to respond with? If it had been sadness or disappointment, then she could have simply chalked it up to her previous theory of him hiding his inner misery. This, however, made completely no sense given the circumstance. Why did her simple response make him worried? What could she have possibly said to elicit such a response from him?

Trying to approach this problem from a different angle, Vert guessed that it was possible he had actually been responding to her troubled look instead, but that didn't seem to be the case either. It was simply based off a strange feeling she got, but Vert was fairly certain that the worry she detected had not been directed at her specifically but rather something else.

Before she could continue to ponder about this any further though, one of Noire's soldiers came running up to them with an urgent look.

"Important message for you, ma'am," the soldier reported, giving a professional salute towards his patron goddess. "The head technician wishes to speak with you. It seems they're facing some form of trouble connecting with the satellite array."

Noire quickly got over her surprise at the news as she gave a grim-faced nod. "I'll speak with them immediately. Return to your post, soldier."

With a sharp "Yes, ma'am!" the messenger did as he was told and left the group. Meanwhile, the Lastation CPU gave a loud sigh and motioned for everyone to follow her.

"We might as well see what kind of problem we've run into this time," she stated in a tired tone.

Realizing that they were still in the middle of a war against the Swarm, Vert decided to put her baffled thoughts on hold for the time being and joined the departing crowd. However, this did not stop her from continuing to glance at the once-again-smiling boy as she resolved to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding him.

* * *

"Ah, Lady Black Heart. I'm glad you came here so quickly."

As soon as the main characters arrived at the station's control room, they were greeted by a middle-aged NPC dressed in a standard Lastation soldier outfit. The only thing that identified him as a special character was the large badge on his chest proclaiming him to be the Head Military Technician.

With a short nod, Noire assumed her usual business face and calmly addressed her subject.

"What appears to be the problem here?"

The head technician gave a sigh as he indicated towards his staff members who were currently busy clearing out the debris in the room or fixing up some of the important-looking machinery. "It seems that the fans damaged parts of this facility during their initial rampage. While most of the equipment are still functional, it appears that the central relay system was heavily damaged."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ram interrupted loudly.

"It means we can't connect to the satellite array like we planned," C-Sha explained, frowning at the bad news.

The head technician gave a short nod. "Without the central relay system, we won't be able to get the nation-wide coverage that we hoped for. We've tried fixing it already but the damage appears to be far too extensive."

A brooding silence fell over the group as they all went over this unexpected problem.

"Isn't there any other way to connect with our satellites?" Noire eventually asked.

The head technician seemed to think about this intensely for a few seconds before answering. "Well... I suppose we can try activating all of the auxiliary relays and using them as a substitute. It'll take some time to set everything up but I believe it's feasible. The only downside is that the make-shift relays will take quite a while longer to link up with the satellites compared to the original."

Noire gave another large sigh as she massaged her temples. "Great. Now I have to organize a proper defensive set-up in order for us to hold out until then. Ugh. Why am I always the one who has to deal with these annoying tactics stuff? I don't even like strategy games!"

"Um... I could help you out if you want."

Much to everyone's surprise, it turned out to be Rom who had spoken up. Blushing a bit at the attention she was getting, the older twin took a deep breath before repeating her offer.

"I... I can help set up our forces. I'm pretty good when it comes to strategy and tactics."

When Noire raised a disbelieving eyebrow at this, Ram immediately stepped forward to support her sister as she piped up energetically. "You should totally accept Rom's help! She actually beat all of the new _Water Emblem_ games without using a guide!"

"That's what you're basing your skill off of?" Noire flatly replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the two. "Look, I hate to burst your bubble, but just about anyone can beat those game when playing on Casual Mode."

Ram's cheeks puffed up adorably as she pouted at the older goddess. "She didn't beat them on Casual Mode, you dummy!" she loudly argued. "Rom finished them all on Lunatic Plus!"

There was a collective gasp of shock at this as everyone turned to stare at Rom with wide eyes.

"Lu... Lunatic... Plus?" Vert whispered out, disbelief and fear evident in her voice. "The legendary difficulty that only those blessed by RNGesus can survive?"

"I've heard stories of that mode," the head technician muttered. "People actually died from foolishly attempting it without proper preparation. As for the few who managed to survive the first few maps, they ended up going completely insane afterwards from the experience."

Rom only blushed more heavily as everyone stared at her with an increased amount of awe.

"Well... looks like we have ourselves a new tactician then," Sync proudly declared after a brief moment. While he too had seemed surprised by the older twin's hidden tactical aptitude, he quickly recovered and put on his usual carefree smile once again. "Alright, Rom. I'm leaving the rest in your capable hands."

"Um... are you going somewhere, big bro?" the older twin asked, confusion replacing her embarrassment as the other party members turned to stare at the boy as well.

Sync gave Rom a reassuring smile as he casually headed towards the door. "Don't worry. I'm just stepping out for some fresh air. All this standing around is starting to cramp up my legs so I'm gonna go walk it off for a bit. I'll meet up with all of you later so don't wait up for me."

With that hurried excuse, he quickly exited the room before anyone could voice their objections.

"Huh. Well, that was weird," C-Sha eventually said into the ensuing silence. "Any ideas what that was all about?"

Noire just rolled her eyes at this. "Hmph. He probably just left to go set up another stupid prank or something. Either that or he just realized how stupid his plan was and decided to run away."

"Sync wouldn't do that!" Ram vehemently countered. "Don't talk about my servant like that, you big stupid Tsun-Tsun!"

"Who're you calling a Tsun-Tsun?!"

As Rom, C-Sha, and the head technician tried to prevent the start of another Console War between Lowee and Lastation, Vert gave a tired sigh as she reluctantly made up her mind on what to do. While she would have liked nothing more than to simply dismiss the boy's strange actions as well, her questions from before still continued to nag at her mind. Figuring she might be able get some answers out of this, she decided to secretly follow and observe the source of her query.

Ignoring the ultimate showdown between the Tsun-Tsun Waifu and the Ram-bunctious Rascal, Vert quietly slipped away from the ensuing chaos and took off after the boy.

* * *

"Why... are there... so many... stairs?!"

As was usually the case in matters relating to the boy, Vert soon found herself deeply regretting her chosen course of action.

After spotting the retreating kid, the CPU had enlisted the help of Mr. Box once again from her inventory to stealthily follow after her target. Unfortunately for her, the boy had apparently not been joking about needing a walk as he had entered the stairwell and proceeded to head up the building. A building which just so happened to be thirty stories tall.

"Was it really necessary for Noire to turn every building in her nation into a skyscraper?" Vert grumbled, continuing her waddle up the stairs from inside her cardboard box. "I know she's obsessed with beating Neptune at everything but that doesn't mean she has to make every building taller than the Neptower for crying out loud!"

Luckily, the boy was not around to overhear her architectural complaints. Due to her being forced to travel like some sort of odd box-shaped duck, Vert had ended up lagging behind him quite a bit. As a result, she had been left alone in the stairwell while he had exited through the door leading to the twenty-ninth floor some time ago. Why he had chosen to climb so high was anybody's guess, but Vert could not shake the strange feeling that she was somehow being pranked once again.

Regardless, she chose to continue her pursuit of him while maintaining her cover. While it would have made her life much easier to simply take off Mr. Box and climb the stairs like a normal person, she was afraid of the boy popping back into the stairwell again and spotting her. Seeing as how her prime objective at the moment was to spy on him, she decided it was much safer to just take it slow and chase after him in her cutting-edge stealth device.

Several long and painful minutes later, Vert finally managed to duck-walk her way up to her destination. Breathing heavily from her arduous trek, she stopped to take a quick breather as she gave her jellified legs some much needed rest.

"Never... again," she gasped out while still inside her box. "I don't care... what the situation is... I'm never... taking the stairs... ever again. "

After spending several more minutes recovering and complaining about the evils of stairs, Vert eventually shuffled her way out of the stairway and into the main hall. Taking a cursory glance around, she saw that the boy was nowhere to be found in what appeared to be some kind of unused office department. Figuring he was hiding out in one of the empty rooms, the CPU decided to check on each of them to see if he was inside.

After going through nearly a dozen unused offices, she eventually managed to pick up her target's voice coming from an empty storage room near the back end of the hall. Quietly approaching the half-open door, Vert managed to overhear the boy talking as if he was in a conversation with someone.

"-sure you don't need this anymore? I don't want you to inconvenience yourself because of me."

" _I told you, it's fine,"_ a chirpy voice answered him through some kind of communicator. _"Besides, Histy told us that all of the fans retreated back to Lastation. If that's the case, then that stone's going to be a lot more useful with you right now."_

It took Vert a second before she recognized the person speaking as the older Neptune. Before she could ponder about the conversation she had just overheard though, Sync spoke up once again.

"By the way, how are mini-Nep, Nepgear, and Uzume doing?"

" _Oh, they're fine,"_ Big Nep replied cheerfully. _"Mini-me and Nepgear are busy helping me clean up the mess around here. As for Uzume, she chased after the doomsday dragon after it activated its Final Boss Immunity Status and ran off to its End-game battle site."_

Sync hardly seemed fazed at all by this meta explanation. "I'm guessing her shouts were effective then?"

" _Yup! You really should have seen it! She screamed off the overgrown lizard's plot protection like it was made out of paper!"_

"Huh. Sounds like I missed quite the show. Maybe I'll tag along on her epic, dragon-slaying adventure later to see it for myself. Well, after I deal with this current fan crisis of course."

" _Heh heh. And here I was thinking that I led an interesting life."_

The two shared a small laugh at this before descending into a comfortable silence. After a moment, Big Nep spoke up again in a rather apologetic tone.

" _Sorry about not being able to teleport over to help you though. Crostie used up too much energy warping me around during the battle with the dragon and I don't think she'll be recovered enough to teleport me again for a few hours at the least."_

" _Tch. The least you can do is give me some proper thanks for carrying your sorry ass through that fight,"_ the ill-tempered tome muttered from within her notebook prison.

Sync gave an amused snort at this before replying to his tutor in a cheerful voice. "Don't worry. I'm sure we can handle ourselves just fine here. And besides, I've still got that emergency back-up plan ready to go if things go horribly wrong."

Her curiosity instantly piqued by this, Vert moved her box closer towards the door as she leaned forward expectantly. To her dismay, however, the older Neptune failed to disclose any further information about this mysterious back-up plan.

" _I really hope it doesn't come to that,"_ she said instead. _"But if it does happen, just know that I'll be fully prepped and ready to help!"_

Though she could not see it, Vert could easily imagine the boy with a wide grin on his face.

"Thanks, Ms. Neptune. I'm glad I can depend on you."

After making some inconsequential small talk regarding their future lesson plans, the two eventually exchanged farewells with each other (as well as getting a rather sarcastic-sounding "good luck" from Croire) before ending their call.

The storage room fell into complete silence following this as Vert tried to figure out what to do next. Before she could do anything, however, Sync suddenly spoke up again in an amused voice.

"You can come out now, sis" he called out, causing Vert to involuntarily let out a startled yelp in surprise. "I highly doubt your cardboard box is very comfortable to be crouched inside."

After a momentary debate, Vert reluctantly pulled Mr. Box off of her and got back up. After carefully putting away her associate into her inventory, she walked into the large yet relatively empty storage room with a rather sheepish expression.

"How did you know?" she asked, unable to hide her curiosity as she faced the boy.

Now that she could see him, she saw that he had been communicating with the older Neptune using a rather dilapidated N-Gear that he was currently holding in his hand. Apparently, Nepgear had allowed him to keep the communication device that he had refurbished during their dimension-tripping adventure a while back.

"Spatial awareness," he casually answered, putting away his N-Gear into his inventory as he did so. At the same time, Vert also noticed him discretely putting away a blood-red stone that he held in his other hand into his coat pocket but chose not to speak out about it. Having witnessed the stone's headache-inducing creation process firsthand, she knew all too well just what it was and what the boy was most likely going to do with it. If her assumptions were correct, then K-Sha was probably going to find herself controlling a bunch of llamas instead of her fans very soon.

"Heh. Don't get your hopes up too much," the boy said with a smile, obviously realizing that Vert had caught sight of his Philosopher's Stone. "I already used up most of it's energy to change the Ran Pigs into the Ran Rans. Not to mention, Ms. Neptune also had to use a fair amount to deal with the collateral damage that the doomsday dragon caused before sending it back to me. The most I could do with it at this point is send out one small-range transmutation wave against the fans before it runs completely dry."

He stopped to stretch his arms for a bit before facing her again with a knowing grin.

"But that's not what you're here for now, is it sis?"

Vert had to make a conscious effort to stop herself from automatically telling the boy not to call her that. Even so, she could not help but feel the slightest bit annoyed by it.

"And just how do you know what I'm thinking?" she challenged instead, crossing her arms with a huff in a very Noire-like fashion.

To her surprise, the boy let out a loud laugh to this as he shook his head.

"You're just way too easy to read sis," he eventually pointed out, obviously ignoring Vert's annoyance towards that title. "Honestly, I just really hope you never enter a serious poker game or you might end up losing all of Leanbox in the process."

Almost as if to confirm his assessment, Vert put on an easy-to-decipher embarrassed look at his words. While she had not exactly lost her nation, she did end up losing several billion Credits to Blanc during a high-stakes poker game between the CPUs. In fact, the only one who had come out worse than herself that terrible night had been Noire, who had consistently drawn nothing higher than a pair of twos thanks to her abysmal luck.

The boy clearly saw right through her once again as he let out another laugh. After allowing her to stew in her own embarrassment for a couple more seconds, he finally turned back to her with an amused smile.

"Alright, I can tell you have some question for me but I'd rather not spend the entire day answering them. So how about this? You can ask me any one question that you like and I'll answer it as honestly as I can."

As he said this, he suddenly tapped the toe of his right boot against the ground for some odd reason. As a result, Vert's attention was immediately drawn towards the green-and-white mechanized footwear. While she had never paid much attention to them since his initial appearance, she now found herself staring at the odd Processor Unit look-alike once again.

"What exactly are those?" she asked before she could stop herself.

Silence filled the room for a brief second before Vert slapped herself in the face as she realized she had just fallen for the boy's obvious trick.

"Oh these?" he answered with a wide smirk. "They're my Long Fall Boots. They can absorb just about any impact I take when I land on them. They're pretty handy for when I accidentally warp myself into the middle of the sky and such. As for how they work, I don't really know myself seeing as how I was simply born with them. All I can say is that the shares that created me must have anticipated that I would be falling out of the sky a lot."

He stopped to give a small laugh at Vert as she lowered her hand with a groan.

"Well, I answered your question just like I promised," he continued brightly. "Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go prepare for the inevitable Yandere assault." Saying this, he casually began to make his way towards the open door.

As he walked past her, Vert finally managed to snap out of her stupor and quickly tried to pick out the most important question from within her jumbled mind.

"Wait!" she called out, desperately trying not to let this opportunity go to waste. "At least answer me this! Are... Are you... upset at me?"

To her surprise, the boy actually stopped at her question. As she watched with growing confusion, his carefree demeanor once again fell away as he seemed to seriously debate something within his mind. After an oddly tense silence that seemed to stretch on forever, he finally answered her in a completely neutral tone.

"It's not my feelings you should be so concerned about but rather your own."

Before Vert could ask him to clarify, he turned around to face her with a strangely forced-looking smile.

"After all, this is your story... sis."

Saying the last word almost as an afterthought, he casually strolled out of the room, leaving behind an extremely confused Vert in his wake.

* * *

Outside the broadcast station, there was a enormous bustle of activity as Ram and the Resistance soldiers rushed about to carry out the various orders that Rom set out for them. As it turned out, the older Lowee twin had not been joking about her tactical aptitude as she expertly coordinated her forces to turn their simple base of operations into an impenetrable fortress. Side roads were blocked off, chokepoints were established on the main streets, high ground positions were judiciously taken advantage of, and troop deployments were set about in such a way that the soldiers could easily move about and reinforce each other if necessary. All in all, Rom was quickly living up to her new class of Tactician.

Meanwhile, Noire was busy resting on a bench in the lobby while C-Sha looked after her with a barely concealed smile.

"Let it go already, C-Sha," the Lastation CPU growled out as she continued to massage the giant bump on her head.

Much to her annoyance, the Gold Third leader let out yet another stifled laugh to this.

"I... I'm sorry," C-Sha choked out, actually shaking a bit from her suppressed mirth. "It's just... I keep remembering what Ram did to you and... pffft... Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Noire just let out another angry growl as the buxom fighter finally began laughing at her in earnest. After putting up with this for a full minute, the CPU angrily crossed her arms and gave her signature Tsundere huff.

"You wouldn't be laughing so hard if you were the one who just got suplexed by Ram," she muttered bitterly.

C-Sha only laughed harder at that causing Noire to redden in embarrassment.

"Sheesh, it's not that funny! That little brat just got me by surprise, that's all!"

Several more minutes went by before C-Sha finally managed to calm herself down. With a large smile still on her face, she attempted to cheer up the sullen goddess.

"Oh, don't be so upset. You're not the only one who got suplexed by a little kid, you know. I remember poor Blanny being out for an entire day after Ram did it to her." She gave a small chuckle as she recalled that memory. "I have to say, the look on her face was almost worth all the hammers she threw at me later for teaching Ram that technique."

"You're the one who taught her that?!" Noire shot out indignantly. "Why on Gamindustri would you teach that little monster a professional wrestling move?!"

The Gold Third leader gave a casual shrug. "She wanted to learn some martial arts from me so I decided to give her a beginner's course in self-defense."

"How is suplexing people a basic defense skill?!"

C-Sha actually looked a bit sheepish at that as she readjusted her beret. "Okay, I admit that wasn't actually part of the original lesson plan. I had just finished sparring with S-Sha, Dogoo Man, and Dogoo Lady that day and some of their moves were still fresh in my mind. I thought it'd be rather cute to see Ram trying to perform some of their moves so I ended up teaching them to her offhand." She gave a nervous laugh as Noire rubbed the giant bruise on her head again while shooting her a murderous glare. "In hindsight though, I suppose that wasn't exactly one of my brightest ideas."

"No. No it was not."

After a rather awkward bout of silence between the two, the Lastation CPU faced her associate again with a raised eyebrow.

"Speaking of S-Sha, where exactly is she? I'm not that well acquainted with her but we could definitely use her help in this ridiculous situation we're in right now."

C-Sha gave an exasperated sigh at the mention of her missing teammate. "She's off on a road trip in another dimension."

"A road trip?" Noire repeated in confusion.

The Gold Third leader nodded while crossing her arms. "She bought a new car a few weeks ago and went off to tour the multiverse with Dogoo Man and Dogoo Lady. She hasn't answered any of my or B-Sha's calls since then."

"Huh. Maybe there's just no signal where she's at?"

"I doubt it," C-Sha said with an amused snort. "If I know her, she's probably just having too much fun at some inter-dimensional casino or something."

* * *

"I knew we should have listened to E-Sha and stopped for gas at that last exit!"

Grunting this out, Dogoo Lady continued to push the black convertible in front of her with the help of her male counterpart.

Ironically enough, the road trip crew found themselves stranded in the middle of an empty desert highway after their vehicle ran out of fuel halfway to the casino they were planning to visit. With no sign of help arriving anytime soon, the two body-builder Dogoos had opted to go out and move the car forward manually. However, even the two buff goo people found themselves nearing their limits as they realized they were no closer to reaching civilization after nearly two hours of pushing.

"Oof! I never thought I'd say this but I think this workout is too much for me," Dogoo Lady said, stopping briefly to catch her breath.

Next to her, Dogoo Man gladly stopped to take a break as well as he wiped away the sweat from his gelatin-like head. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he looked over towards the front of the car.

"Um, S-Sha?" he called out. "As much as I enjoy physical exercises such as this, perhaps you could... help us out here a little?"

Sitting comfortably in the driver's seat, the stoic Gold Third member simply adjusted her black sunglasses before leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed behind her head.

"...Not interested."

With a pair of tired sighs, Dogoo Man and Dogoo Lady resumed pushing the car forward once again.

* * *

By the time Sync finally regrouped with the other main characters near the entrance of the broadcast station, the base's defenses were all fully set up and deployed. At the moment, Ram, Rom, and C-Sha were busy chatting together while Noire looked over the area's map one more time as she snacked on a box of Pocky she had bought from one of the vending machines. As for Vert, she was still strangely missing from the party.

Catching sight of the approaching boy first, Noire quickly lowered her map as she got up to confront him.

"And just where the hell have you been?" she asked accusingly.

Sync gave a nonchalant shrug as he stopped in front of her. "I told you. I was out for a walk." Seeing the disbelieving eyebrow that Noire raised at him, he suddenly put on a wide grin. "Okay, okay. I might have also made a few calls, sent a few postcards, replaced all of Lastation's computers with cheese wheels, and stopped to chat with some of your officers. Nothing too diabolical, really."

"Wait, what? Cheese wheels? What are you-?"

"Anyways, is sis not back yet?" he interrupted, much to Noire's irritation.

Deciding to pass off his earlier comment as just a joke (at least, she hoped it was a joke), the CPU angrily munched on one of her chocolate-covered biscuit sticks before answering the boy.

"I haven't seen her since she ditched us in the control room. Why?"

Sync just gave her another shrug. "Just wondering. From what I've seen, sis has a bad habit of wandering about if left unattended."

Noire was about to point out that Vert was probably just running away from him at the time when the twins finally caught sight of their favorite playmate.

"About time you showed up!" Ram shouted as she and Rom ran up to greet him, C-Sha casually following behind them with a wave. "I've been wanting to show you all the ice walls I made to block off the smaller streets!"

"Sounds like someone's been rather busy," Sync replied with a cheerful laugh. After giving the rambunctious girl a quick high-five as a greeting, he turned to address the older twin standing next to her with a bright smile. "I'm guessing your preparations are complete then, master tactician?"

Rom blushed a bit at the title before nodding her head. "Y...Yes. I set everything up as best as I can. Even Miss Noire said that it all looks good."

Sync beamed like a proud parent as he gave the young girl a pat on the head. "I knew I could count on you. If even our emotionally suppressed commander praised you, then I'm sure you've done an excellent job."

"Who're you calling emotionally suppressed?!" Noire shot out.

Her outburst was all but ignored as Rom giggled happily at Sync's words while Ram began tugging on his arm.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" the younger twin shouted impatiently. "You need to see all the awesome ice walls I made!"

"Alright, I'm coming," Sync laughed. "Let me just-"

His words were cut short however when one of the sentries suddenly shouted out.

"Ma'am! Radar's picked up an incoming aircraft from the north!"

The lighthearted atmosphere immediately disappeared as Noire turned to the guard with a serious expression.

"Is it ours? Or is K-Sha finally making her move?"

There was a brief pause as the sentry conferred with one of the other soldiers before answering his boss.

"The scanners show that it's definitely our airship but they're not responding to any of our calls. Judging from their flight pattern though, I think they might have sustained a hit and lost their radio."

"Continue monitoring the radar to see if they're being pursued!" Noire quickly ordered.

With a quick affirmative and salute, the soldier went back to keeping watch over the portable radar he was holding while the main heroes prepared themselves for the worst.

Luckily though, no other aircraft ended up being spotted as the Lowee airship soon entered their field of vision. It quickly became apparent that the sentry had been right about the ship being hit as a thick plume of smoke could be seen coming from its rear.

"This can't be good," C-Sha muttered worriedly. "The Hunters were flying recon only a few miles out from here. If they were attacked, then that means K-Sha's forces can't be too far behind."

"Huh, so that's where those Hunter guys went," Sync casually commented, completely disregarding the last part of the Gold Third leader's statement. "I was wondering where they disappeared to after we got here."

No one had a chance to reply to him as the airship entered the perimeter of their base and descended onto a cleared out section of the main road. Now that the group had a closer look at it, the damage seemed to be a lot less serious than they had originally thought. Apparently, one of the rear thrusters had been damaged in some kind of explosion as it continued to let out the black smoke that they had seen before. Thankfully though, the ship's automatic fire-suppression system had already put out the flames by the time the airship finished landing.

Curious as to what exactly had happened, Noire and the other heroes quickly approached the damaged vessel as its door opened to release yet another cloud of smoke from the inside. After a moment, the four Hunters all walked out wearing a set of emergency gas masks on their faces.

"That's the last time I let you drive!" one of the identical looking Hunters yelled as he took off his mask. "We totally could have avoided that missile if I was in charge of the wheel!"

"Shut it you," the pilot Hunter countered, taking off his mask as well. "If I had let you drive, we probably would have ended up in Zero Dimension before crashing directly into a mountain."

"That was one time! How the hell was I supposed to know that the training vehicle had an emergency dimensional jump system?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that the big, red button you pushed had the words 'EMERGENCY DIMENSIONAL JUMP' written on it in all caps?"

The Hunters' argument was cut short when C-Sha suddenly cleared her throat.

"Oh, hey there boss," the pilot answered with a sheepish look. "I didn't realize you were there."

"Yes, well, could you maybe tell us what exactly happened out there?" C-Sha said with a touch of impatience.

The pilot Hunter gave a large sigh in response while the other two unmentioned Hunters struggled to take off their gas masks in the background.

"I really don't know where to begin," the pilot answered, completely ignoring the cartoonish antics taking place behind him. "The best way I can put it is-"

"We're fucked," the Hunter who had been arguing with him cut in. "At least, that's probably how Lady Blanc would put it."

The pilot seemed to roll his eyes at this but no one could really tell thanks to his goggles. "Gee, that sure explains a lot," he muttered with a level of sarcasm that could have made Croire proud. After shaking his head, he faced his boss again with a serious look. "He's right about us being in trouble though. They're probably outside of our radar's range right now but this entire city is completely surrounded by the fans."

"How many are there?" Noire asked worriedly.

The pilot gave a slight grimace as he seemed to visibly suppress his own fear. "Thousands? Ten thousands? Honestly, it looked liked almost all of Lastation was there."

A wave of nervous looks passed over the group at the news. While they had all been expecting the Swarm to be large, it was still rather shocking to hear just how massive their opposition really was.

"Ah, that doesn't matter!" Ram suddenly shouted, her usual bravado quickly returning. "We're still going to kick their butts anyways! In fact, me and Rom can just fly over and freeze them all right now!"

The pilot shook his head at this. "I advise against that Lady Ram. K-Sha's obviously learned her lesson from last time and spread out her forces. The two of you wouldn't be able to freeze all of those nutjobs before they shot you down."

"Quick question," Sync interrupted while raising his hand. "You said a missile hit the airship, right? Are you saying the fans are armed with actual weapons now?"

"Even better," the pilot replied with a sigh. "Those maniacs have somehow gotten their hands on a bunch of Alloy Gears."

"What?!" Noire exclaimed with undisguised shock. "How is that possible? All of Lastation's Alloy Gears are locked away on Shadow Moses Island! Even K-Sha wouldn't have been able to hack into the security system there!"

"Maybe she got them from somewhere else then?" C-Sha suggested.

The CPU shook her head at this. "Impossible. As far as I know, the Lastation military is the only one with an operational force of Alloy Gears. Unless..."

"Let me guess," Sync said with a knowing grin. "There's actually a mercenary organization that had their own stockpile of bipedal tanks?"

Noire shot him a glare before reluctantly nodding her head. "The Order. The same mercenary group that K-Sha used to be a part of. From what I know, they were developing their own line of Alloy Gears before my Basilicom shut them down. I thought I confiscated all of their assets after the Kurome incident but it looks like I missed a few. K-Sha must have remembered where one of their hidden armories were though and reactivated all of the Alloy Gears inside."

"Great," C-Sha intoned. "Now we have to deal with a bunch of giant death robots as well as the mass of fans."

In stark contrast to their caretaker's exasperated attitude however, the twins were practically jumping up and down in excitement.

"Whoooo! We get to fight an actual Alloy Gear!" Ram shouted out gleefully.

"This is going to be so cool!" Rom agreed next to her.

Sync quickly joined in on their cheering with an amused laugh while Noire just gave a facepalm at their childish antics.

"How many Alloy Gears were there and which direction are they coming from?" the CPU eventually asked, hoping to bring some level of seriousness back into the matter.

"At least three skyscraper-sized ones along with several dozen smaller ones accompanying each of them," the pilot answered. "The last we saw before they fired at us, they were all grouped up in the northern forest and heading towards us from there."

"I'm guessing that's the direction where their hidden armory was," Noire muttered before questioning the pilot again. "What about the other areas? Were there any Alloy Gears there as well?"

"None. The passes to the south and west were just filled with fans. We did see a bunch of landed transport helicopters with them though."

Noire hardly seemed surprised by this news as she gave a short nod. "Those are probably the ones that K-Sha stole from our military bases for her invasion into Planeptune. Unfortunately, they didn't have a security override feature like our tanks so we couldn't remotely shut them down."

"Wait, why hasn't she just doom-dropped our location with all of her transports then?" C-Sha asked. "Wouldn't that have been much easier for her than marching her swarm here on foot?"

"They're probably out of fuel," the CPU explained, a small smile appearing on her face. "The helicopters run on a specialized fuel cell that can only be found at my military supply depots. After I heard K-Sha hijacked my fleet, I ordered my technicians to seal off all access to these depots in response."

"Nice," the Gold Third leader said with a smile of her own.

Noire quickly put on her serious expression again though as she crossed her arms.

"We still need to figure out how to deal with these Alloy Gears though. I can't tell if K-Sha's trying to tire me out by making me fight them or if she just wants to kill everybody at this point but it's pretty clear we need to stop them before they reach the broadcast station. If they end up destroying the building, then this entire operation is doomed."

"You're worrying too much," Sync commented, his tone as carefree as ever. "I mean, we have two CPUs, three CPU Candidates, the leader of Gold Third, and a team of expert Hunters with us. All we have to do is engage those robots at the outskirts of the city and they'll be scrap metal in no time."

"Are you stupid?" Noire shot back with a scowl. "We can't just all leave the base. Even with our defenses, our forces would be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of fans if we're not there to help them."

"I never said we had to send over everyone, dear." The triggered look he got from Noire seemed to make up for the painful smack on the arm he got from Ram. "Heh heh. Worth it," he muttered before clearing his throat and turning somewhat serious again. "We can simply divide ourselves up into three separate squads and rotate between fending off the fans, fighting the Alloy Gears, and resting. That way, we can conserve our energy and stall for enough time for the broadcast to be sent out."

There was a bout of silence as everyone thought over this plan.

"It's a pretty solid idea," C-Sha eventually said with a nod. "This way, we won't all be exhausted at the end like during our last battle."

"There's one big flaw though," Noire pointed out, still glaring daggers at the boy. "The edge of the city has to be at least twenty miles from here. Even with the airship and our ability to fly, it'd take way too long to properly rotate between the two battlefields. Not to mention, it'd be a gigantic waste of energy for us to constantly go back and forth like that."

Sync just continued to smile as he suddenly teleported one of Noire's Pocky sticks to his hand and waved it in front of her face.

"Two words: Spatial. Powers." Saying that, he took a bite out of his stolen snack while the CPU slapped herself in the face for forgetting about his ability once again.

"I think I made it pretty clear that I'm not much of a fighter compared to the rest of you so I'll be filling out the support role for this match," Sync continued after finishing off the rest of the biscuit stick. "I'll handle teleporting everyone across the battlefields so just focus on taking down our enemies. I'll fight as well if needed though so don't be afraid to ask for help if something unexpected happens."

"Are you sure you can do this?" C-Sha asked skeptically. "You're not going to accidentally send us off into another dimension again, are you?"

"That was for a long-range teleportation," he answered with a dismissive wave. "I've always had trouble with those. A few miles like this though should be a cakewalk for me. In fact, I was able to consistently warp about within a forty mile radius when I was training with Ms. Neptune. Of course, I was traveling alone at the time and only performed a few dozen warps so the results might be a bit subjective."

"You're really filling us with confidence here," Noire deadpanned, lowering her hand to glare at him once more.

Sync simply smiled at her again in response. "Hey, at least one of us has to be honest about our flaws."

The CPU was just about to let loose an angry retort when the _mk2_ Lastation theme song began to play from her inventory. Casting one more dirty look at the boy, she pulled out her phone and answered the call.

"What?" she practically spat out.

" _Um... this is the head technician, ma'am,"_ the voice on the phone answered timidly, clearly taken aback by his boss's hostile tone. _"You told me to contact you directly regarding our progress."_

Noire quickly took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself before replying in her usual dignified voice.

"Sorry. I was just dealing with an... annoying problem. Anyways, what exactly did you want to notify me of?"

" _Ah, yes. We just finished setting up the auxiliary relays. According to our computers, we have roughly thirty minutes until we're fully connected to our satellite array."_

"About time," Noire replied, sounding more relieved than annoyed despite her words. "Continue keeping watch over its progress and send me updates as needed."

" _Yes, ma'am!"_

With their main objective finally online, Noire pushed aside her eternal conflict with the blond shota as she put away her phone and quickly took charge once more.

"You four," she ordered, facing the group of Hunters, "Go speak to one of my mechanics and get the airship fixed up. You'll be the resting squad until you get that ship back up and running."

The four Hunters looked at C-Sha first to confirm their orders with her before heading off to do as they were told.

"Oh, oh, oh! Me and Rom call first dibs on the Alloy Gears!" Ram shouted before Noire could speak up again.

The twin-tailed CPU rolled her eyes at this before replying. "Fine. C-Sha, you're the only one who can reliably keep these two in check. Go with them and make sure they don't cause too much unnecessary collateral damage."

"You didn't even have to ask," the buxom fighter responded with a smile.

Noire gave a sigh as she continued. "I suppose that leaves me to find Vert and fend off the-"

"Lady Black Heart!" the sentry from before suddenly interrupted. "We have fan attack waves incoming!"

"Already?" C-Sha exclaimed in surprise.

Sync casually snatched another Pocky stick from Noire with his power before speaking up. "I guess some of their transports had a little extra fuel left,"he surmised.

"We're ready for them," Rom spoke up, a surprising note of confidence in her voice. "We'll beat these meanies for sure."

Sync nodded his head in agreement to this while Noire glared at him for stealing another one of her snacks.

"Alright! The end war has come!" he declared dramatically, holding his biscuit stick in the air like a sword. "This is the day we defeat the Swarm and bring back peace to our world! For Gamindustri!"

"For Gamindustri!" the twins echoed alongside him.

Noire just shook her head at their antics before mentally preparing herself for the oncoming battle. While she was not as excited as the three kids, she was definitely looking forward to ending this madness as well. Putting the last remaining Pocky stick in her mouth, she looked out at the soon-to-be battlefield with a determined look of her own.

"Hell, it's about time."

* * *

 _Meanwhile_...

Down in the deep underground storage basement of Lowee's convention center, a certain forgotten CPU Candidate angrily shouted out into the surrounding darkness.

"Gah! How long are we going to be trapped in here for?!" Uni ranted.

As expected, the mini-Tsun was not exactly too happy about her current predicament.

As soon as the prank marriage video had gone out (and Uni knew it had to be a prank seeing as how the only thing her sister would ever marry was her work), K-Sha had gone into full Yandere mode and disappeared into the crowd of rioting fans. Uni had no time to go after her though as she had to help Uzume, B-Sha, and Steamax escort the remaining sane attendees to a safe location. After beating back a countless number of crazed fans, the group finally managed to retreat into the convention center's lower halls. Since then, the survivors had been trapped in the dark basement with nothing to do other than fending off the feral fans that wandered their way. In fact, the only thing of note that had really happened since then was the older Neptune suddenly showing up and warping away Uzume with some vague explanation about a doomsday dragon. On the plus side though, Big Nep had been thoughtful enough to leave them some of the pudding that she had apparently bought along the way.

As Uni tried to open up one of the last remaining cups of the aforementioned snack, a sad sniffling noise suddenly came from next to her.

"Oh, geez. Get over it already, B-Sha!" the CPU Candidate said irritably. "They were just a few figures for crying out loud!"

"They... They were ultra-rare Amiibos," the young Gold Third member corrected, her tone filled with utter misery. "I... I could have sold them for *hic* ten times their original prices online."

Uni just rolled her eyes at the young scalper. Ever since she had lost her cart-load of figures during the initial fan frenzy, B-Sha had been continuously crying about it like she had just lost one of her closest friends (which, considering her love for money, probably wasn't that far away from the truth).

With an annoyed growl, Uni turned away from her depressed company as she felt her head painfully throb once more. Ever since a few days ago, she had been suffering from a strange bout of sporadic headaches. For some odd reason, she thought she could almost hear a faint voice in her head telling her to 'submit to the will of the Queen'; whatever the hell that meant. Of course, her natural stubbornness allowed her to simply dismiss the voice as nothing more than a figment of her imagination caused by her mounting stress.

As Uni shook her head yet again, a tall metallic figure suddenly crawled out of a nearby air vent and approached her.

"Lady Uni!" Steamax happily called out to his favorite goddess. "I just finished scouting the area like you asked and have great news!"

"Unless you brought me some aspirin, I kind of doubt it," Uni grumbled, putting down the pudding cup she was holding as she tried to force back her headache through sheer force of will.

"Ha ha ha ha! You always did have such a great sense of humor!" Steamax laughed off. "No, but in all seriousness, I do have good news! All of the fans have cleared out of the building!"

Uni quickly forgot all about her head pains as she faced the robot ninja with a shocked look.

"Seriously? Where did they all go?"

"That I'm not sure," Steamax replied. "However, we should definitely use this opportunity to make our escape."

Uni quickly got over her surprise as she happily nodded her head. She was so elated at the prospect of finally getting out of their underground hideout that she even gave Steamax a rare smile.

"Excellent scouting work, Jiro," she said, affectionately calling him by his former nickname.

Steamax practically squealed with joy upon hearing the praise. In fact, his mechanical body actually lit up with multiple hidden LED lights from his happiness as he illuminated the formerly dark room like a shining disco ball.

"Huh? What's that you're holding?" B-Sha suddenly asked, taking notice of the books in Steamax's hand thanks to the sudden lighting.

"Oh, these?" he answered, still shining brightly from pure happiness. "I found them at one of the abandoned booths in the exhibition hall. I thought we could use these against the fans if we happen to run across any while we escape."

"What exactly are... they..."

Uni's question trailed off as she got a good look at the covers of the 'books' that Steamax was carrying. Displayed proudly on each and every one of them was a wide variety of nude pictures of Noire doing some very... questionable things with the other CPUs. Not surprisingly, Uni did not take too well to seeing these erotic images.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! YOU PERVERT!"

With all of her previous happiness instantly replaced by unbridled Tsundere rage and embarrassment, Uni charged Steamax with the full intention of dismantling him.

"Awaugh! Lady Uni! Please be gentle with me!"

As the poor robot was taken down by the twin-tailed hurricane, B-Sha quietly approached the pile of Noire doujinshi that Steamax had ended up dropping. Shooting a furtive glance around her to make sure no one was looking, she picked up the erotic books and quickly pocketed them into her inventory.

"Well... they might not be Amiibos but at least I know there's a high demand for these," the money-obsessed girl said, a greedy smile appearing on her face. "Heh heh. Time to see how much I can scalp these baddies for on Nep-bay!"

Behind her, Steamax simply continued to scream as one of his legs went flying into the air.


	11. Whispers of Madness

**A small note to all the new readers: I was on a five month hiatus before releasing this chapter. Hence the brief recap and all the jokes about the long wait.**

* * *

 **Previously on Greenlit Trouble** :

Noire: Contact our technicians! We need to get the Tsun Disruptors online if we want to have any chance of defeating the Swarm!

Generic Lastation Soldier #343: Sir! We've just got a report that all of our computers have been replaced with giant cheese wheels!

Noire: What?!

 _ **Scene transition to a dimly lit interrogation room with Ram slamming her fist onto a table**_

Ram: Where's the location of the rebel base? Talk!

Uni: You'll never get anything out of me you traitor!

 _ **Scene transition to an ice cream truck dramatically exploding**_

Blanc: You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Sync: But I don't want to damn anyone to hell.

Blanc: Shut it you brat!

 _ **Scene transition to Nepgear and a Nepgeardam playing a children's card game on flying motorcycles**_

Nepgear: Now I activate the effects of my "Screw the rules!" card! With it, I can give my Stardust Umio infinity attack points and prevent you from activating any other cards this turn!

Nepgeardam: Error! Error! Does not compute!

 _ **Scene transition to IF and Compa standing on the veranda of Planeptune Tower**_

IF: Compa. I need you to stop lying to me. I know about the affair you're having with my secret twin sister.

Compa: *Gasp!* It... It's not like that... desu!

 _ **Scene transition to Vert and Neptune standing before a giant, evil-looking pudding cup**_

Vert: Neptune! By the power of my command seal, I hereby order you to destroy the Holy Pudding Grail!

Neptune: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 **We now return to Greenlit Trouble (already in progress)**

* * *

 **Ch 11: Whispers of Madness**

 **North Lastation Broadcast District  
** **Southern Perimeter Entrance**

"Is it just me or does it feel like we've been stuck in this battle for several months now?"

The Lastation soldier asking this rather meta question momentarily paused in his shootout against the fans as he glanced at his nearby partner for an answer.

At the moment, the entire outer perimeter of the district was an all out war-zone as the full might of K-Sha's Swarm relentlessly assaulted the main roads to the north, south, and west. Luckily, Rom's defensive measures were holding up quite well as the heroes were able to readily hold back the terrifying masses from their superior positions. As the fans tried to squeeze in through the large piles of scrap metal acting as barricades, the soldiers stationed on top of strategically placed metal scaffolds easily shot down the invaders with their numerous riot suppression gear.

After gunning down what felt to be his millionth fan of the day with his taser rifle, the second nondescript Lastation soldier finally turned his attention to his teammate on the scaffold.

"I'd take it easy with the fourth-wall breaking if I were you," he warned, giving a worried glance around him that had nothing to do with the legion of crazed fans trying to rip his limbs off. "You know about the boss's policy regarding meta nonsense. I mean, the last guy she caught breaking the fourth wall was immediately fired and deported to Planeptune."

The first soldier raised an eyebrow at this as he absently shot down a large screaming fan that had been racing towards their position. "Um... are you talking about the guy who ended up starting a chain of pudding parlors and is now making ten times the amount of Credits we are while doing less than half the work?"

A rather contemplative silence filled the air between them as the sounds of the widespread battle continued to rage on around them.

"On second thought, maybe getting deported from here isn't such a bad thing after all." Just as the second soldier said this, a massive horde of fans suddenly broke through the barricaded chokepoint and raced towards them on all fours like a pack of crazed beasts. "Holy- ! Okay, that tears it! I'm moving out of here the first chance I get!"

Before the enormous swarm could reach them however, a volley of tranquilizer darts suddenly rained down from the skies and effectively dispatched the entire attack wave.

"Aw, don't be like that," a playful voice spoke up from behind the two stunned guards. "My dear waifu would be real sad if she found out you'd leave her nation over a small fan incursion like this."

Both of the soldiers' expressions took on a decidedly unamused look as they turned around to find none other than Sync standing before them.

"Sir," the first soldier eventually greeted in a curt tone. Around them, the rest of the soldiers on the surrounding platforms turned to regard the troublesome CPU Candidate with equally unwelcoming gazes.

While most of Lastation's forces were... less than pleased with the trouble the kid had caused (and that was putting it mildly), there was also the fact that he had helped rescue them all during the initial chaos to consider. As a result, most of them had opted to grudgingly abide by his presence for the time being rather than trying to lynch him on sight like the fans were.

"Do you really need to keep calling the boss your 'waifu' even now?" the second soldier remarked disapprovingly. "Haven't you caused enough problems with that stupid prank of yours already?"

Sync hardly seemed fazed by this cold reception as he simply answered with his usual carefree grin.

"Hey, Noire's the one who started it all by randomly claiming me as her boyfriend. All I'm doing is playing by her little game."

As all the soldiers around them raised a skeptical eyebrow at this, another wave of fans charged in through the ruined barricade and made a beeline towards the defending forces. Sync, however, simply used his spatial powers to pull out another plethora of darts from his inventory before casually shooting down the fans.

"No, seriously," Sync continued, not missing a beat even after being interrupted by a bloodthirsty mob. "I showed up at your guys' Basilicom to pick up my sister when Noire just latched onto me and suddenly declared me to be her boyfriend. If you don't believe me, you can simply ask her whether it's true or not when she gets here. Just remember that in the Tsundere language, a flustered reaction means a 'yes' no matter what else she might say."

Despite their overall desire to call out the boy's ridiculous claims, none of the soldiers seemed too keen on the prospect of actually confronting their boss with this topic. If the kid was actually telling the truth, as unlikely as it was, then it was more or less a given that Noire would display her embarrassment in the most Tsundere way possible: by dishing out a healthy dose of rage and violence to whichever poor soul had set her off. Considering that the soldier who had foolishly asked her in the past whether or not she was actually dating Neptune was now filed as MIA, it was probably not conducive to anyone's health to be poking the metaphorical twin-tailed dragon.

"Where is Lady Black Heart anyways?" the first soldier asked, quickly shifting away from the rather dangerous topic. "I thought she and Lady Vert were supposed to be the ones heading the base defenses."

Sync gave a smug grin at the obvious subject change but played along with it anyways. "Noire's stuck with my usual task of retrieving my wayward sis," he explained. "I told her where to find her though so both of them should be making their way to the frontlines soon enough. In the meantime, I figured I'd do a brief sweep of our positions and help shore up our defenses as needed."

"Hold on," the second soldier interrupted. "If you knew where your sister was, couldn't you have just used your fancy teleporting powers to bring her over here rather than sending our boss to go fetch her?"

Sync just gave a casual shrug. "Yeah, I probably could have."

All of the soldiers waited for him to say something more but all they got was a large mischievous smile instead.

After a rather lengthy silence, the first soldier spoke up again with a large sigh. "You really have something against Lady Black Heart, don't you?"

"Not at all," Sync replied, his devious grin still on his face. "I love my _dear waifu_ very much. I just figured she could use the extra exercise. All that sitting around in her office can't be good for her health you know. And besides, I'm sure my lovely Noire wouldn't want me to overexert myself like before. I'm still just a novice when it comes to using my powers after all." As he said this, he summoned up another volley of darts to shoot down nearly fifty approaching fans with pinpoint accuracy before telekinetically moving the scattered piles of enormous scrap metal back over to the chokepoint with absolute ease.

None of the Lastation forces seemed to be able to figure out how to respond to all of this before the second soldier eventually buried his nondescript face into his hand and let out a tired groan.

"We're gonna be stuck with you for a while, aren't we?"

The only answer he received was another cheerful smile.

* * *

 **North Lastation Broadcast Tower  
** **28th Floor**

If there was one thing Noire was extremely proud of besides her work ethics (and Uni but she would never admit to that out loud), it was in her nation's architecture. While she was not quite as devoted to the philosophy of 'bigger is better' like Vert was, she did agree that making all of her important buildings into monumental skyscrapers was a worthwhile show of her power and majesty. In her mind, the towering structures that reached to the heavens would leave an awe-inspiring impact on anyone looking at them and prove that Lastation was undoubtedly the greatest of all nations.

Unfortunately for her though, she was starting to come to the sad realization that presentation and practicality were very often two completely different things.

"Why... are there... so many... stairs?!"

Even for a CPU, the arduous journey up the seeming endless flight of stairs was nothing short of physical torture. With all of the elevators being shut down to power up the communication relays, Noire was forced to manually climb up to the twenty-ninth floor where Vert was supposedly lounging around in. What she was doing up there was a mystery to the Tsundere goddess but that was all the brat had been willing to tell her before warping away with the Lowee team to their respective battlefield.

"If I knew... how annoying... this was going to be... I should have just... told the brat... to pick up... his stupid sister... himself!"

With that winded complaint, Noire dragged her aching feet up once more before noticing that she had finally reached her destination. Unable to stop herself from breathing a huge sigh of relief, the tired and thoroughly annoyed CPU took a moment to catch her breath and look down at the spiraling abyss of stairs that she had just traversed. In hindsight, she realized she could have made this a lot easier for herself by simply flying up to the target floor in her HDD form and just breaking in through a window. Of course, she had severely underestimated just how much of a task this was actually going to be and her poor legs were now paying the price.

"Ugh, I really need to get back into shape," Noire begrudgingly admitted to herself. "I'm going to end up like that purple-haired blob if I continue to stay inside all day."

Already coming up with a strict work-out schedule for herself in her mind, Noire stretched out her tired legs before exiting the dreaded stairwell.

"Sheesh, what the hell is Vert even doing all the way up here at a time like this?" Noire grumbled, peering inside each of the rooms she passed by in the hopes of locating her query. "The least she could do is put some more effort into cleaning up the mess that her stupid brother created."

Even as she said this, Noire found herself still having a hard time believing that the annoying little brat was actually related to the blonde goddess. Asides from their physical appearances, there really did not seem to be much of a similarity between the two supposed siblings. Sure, Vert could be just as annoying at times with her incessant bragging about her stupid over-sized breasts and all, but the little brat took things to a whole other level with his knack for driving everyone around him insane. That was not to say that siblings had to have the exact same personalities as each other (the Nep sisters were a prime example of that), but it was still strange to see just how different the two blondes actually were.

"Well, I guess I can understand why Vert's been acting so stressed lately," Noire said in a rare show of empathy. "I know I'd probably be going crazy if someone like _him_ ended up being my-"

"...death flag?!"

Noire froze as Vert's unexpected voice suddenly shouted out from what appeared to be a large storage room several doors down. Quickly getting over her surprise, the Lastation CPU cautiously moved towards the source of the exclamation as she tried to hear what exactly was going on.

It was not until Noire reached the wide-open door of the storage room that she managed to hear Vert whispering furtively as if she was having a secretive conversation with someone. Her curiosity getting the better of her, Noire quietly approached the doorway before peeking her head into the room.

To her confusion, all she found inside were a few old cleaning supplies and tools with Vert pacing back and forth in the middle with a serious look on her face. As Noire continued to watch this bizarre proceeding with a raised eyebrow, the blonde CPU began to mutter incomprehensibly to herself once more as if she was having some sort of heated debate with herself. This continued on for a few minutes before Vert finally stopped in her pacing and gave a large sigh.

"Fine," Noire heard her mutter in a resigned tone. "If this really is following a standard formula like you proposed, then I suppose I'll just have to keep an eye on him. As troublesome as it is, I won't just sit by and- WILL YOU STOP BURNING MY BREAD ALREADY?!"

Startled by the sudden and bizarre outburst, Noire jolted from her unstable half-crouch and ended up tumbling right through the doorway.

"What the-? Who-?" Vert's exclamation was cut short as she quickly recognized the person sprawled out on the floor in front of her. "Noire? What are you doing here?"

The twin-tailed goddess in question found her face rapidly reddening as she looked up from her rather compromising position. For a long awkward moment, the two CPUs just stared at each other with looks of intense embarrassment and confusion respectively. Noire eventually broke the silence though as she loudly cleared her throat before pushing herself off the ground with as much dignity as she could salvage.

"Sheesh, don't you realize there's a war taking place outside right now?" Noire said, quickly taking the offensive before things could get even more awkward. "I just came here to drag your lazy butt back onto the battlefield where it belongs!"

Vert blinked a few times before she finally seemed to comprehend what her colleague was talking about.

"Oh... right. The fans. I admit I'd fully forgotten about them."

Noire found her earlier embarrassment rapidly fading away as she crossed her arms and gave Vert a look of exasperated disbelief.

"You're kidding right? How could you just forget about a swarm of deranged fans that's trying to kill us all? Well, kill everyone except for me I guess. But seeing as how K-Sha's the one in charge, I think getting killed is a much better option then being kidnapped and imprisoned by her. I mean, I've seen enough Yanderes in anime to know how that usually ends up."

For some odd reason, Vert did not bother to reply to Noire's rather lame attempts at humor. Instead she simply started to zone out again with the same severe look as before.

Even with the stress of everything that was going on, Noire could not help but start to feel a little bit worried about her somewhat-friend's odd behavior. "Um... hello? Gamindustri to Vert? You okay in-?"

Noire's words were abruptly cut off as an enormous explosion rocked the building. Luckily, it seemed the building had only been buffeted by the unknown blast's shockwave as the tremors quickly subsided with no additional sounds of structural damage following afterwards.

Snapping out of her stupor, Vert quickly shook her head and focused back on the main issue at hand. "My apologizes. I just... have a lot of things on my mind right now. Anyways, we should probably get going. We need to neutralize those fans before we do anything else."

Noire tried her best to look annoyed as she and Vert both turned towards the door. "Hmph! Don't start acting like you're in charge now! Just so you know, I'm the boss of this entire operation, understand?"

This finally managed to crack through Vert's uncharacteristic stoicism as she gave a wry smile at her colleague. "Of course. Whatever you say, oh-great-and-mighty Commander Black Heart."

Noire just gave a mild growl in response as the two made their way into the main hallway. As they ran by, the twin-tailed CPU tried to see how the battle was progressing outside but was unable to do so due to all the windows facing towards the empty expanses to the east.

"Noire," Vert suddenly spoke up, her voice becoming serious again. "Do you know where the... boy is right now?"

Noire raised an eyebrow at this. "He was warping over the twins and C-Sha to fight the Alloy Gears the last time I saw him. Knowing him though, he could be just about anywhere on the battlefield right now looking for even more people to annoy." She turned her head to face the older blonde with a questioning look. "Why? Are you worried about him?"

Rather than vehemently denying the claim as expected, Vert instead lowered her head so that her eyes were covered by her bangs. "I suppose you could call it that," she muttered in a tone that somehow ended up sounding both resigned and troubled at the same time.

Noire would have screeched to a halt in surprise if she had not been more worried about getting down to the battlefield as quickly as possible. Even so, she could not help but significantly slow her pace as she stared at the grim-faced CPU with a befuddled expression.

"Wait, what? I thought you-"

Vert interrupted her with a quick shake of her head. "Let's not get into that right now. We already have more than enough trouble to deal with at the moment."

Noire was highly tempted to argue against this but another far-off explosion made her decision for her.

"Fine, fine," she waved off, turning her head back towards the hallway. "It's not like I even care about your stupid relationship with your brother anyways."

Again, worryingly enough, Vert did not bother to offer a rebuttal to the statement and simply remained silent. Noire followed through with her promise though and did not press for any further information. Instead, she simply turned the topic back to their current task at hand.

"By the way, all of the elevators are currently down to power up the communications system. We'll have to take the stairs to-"

The moment the word 'stairs' was uttered, a HDD was heard being activated followed immediately by the shattering of what was presumably a very large window.

Barely suppressing the tic in her eye, Noire turned around to find a large gaping hole leading outside with Green Heart's flying form disappearing around the corner of the building.

"You're paying for that!" Noire belatedly screamed out before activating her own HDD to follow as well.

Inwardly though, she breathed an enormous sigh of relief at avoiding another confrontation with the embodiment of pure evil known as the stairs.

* * *

 **North Lastation City Limits  
** **Outskirts of Northern Forest**

"RULES OF NATURE!"

If robots could sigh, then that was probably what the bipedal tank would have done right before it was turned into sashimi by a gigantic ice blade. As the Alloy Gear's remains joined the ever-increasing pile of scrap metal on the ground, the pink-hatted loli wielding the unorthodox sword triumphantly cheered before rocking out to some imaginary heavy metal song playing in the background.

To say that Ram was having the time of her life would have been the understatement of the century. Being free to cause as much destruction as possible while also having an army of killer robots to recreate the scenes of her latest favorite game was practically a dream-come-true for the rambunctious rascal. Putting aside the tiny detail of how the little girl had managed to get her hands on _that_ particular game (a certain blond shota may or may not have been involved), Ram was surprisingly doing a fairly reasonable imitation of the game's main character.

Well, the robotic destruction part at least.

"Yeah! Woohoo! Take that you dummies! Rules of Nature!"

Off to the side, Rom destroyed a bipedal war-machine of her own by crushing it with a giant ball of ice before facing her exuberant sister with a frown.

"Um... Ram? I'm pretty sure there's more to that song than just that one line."

The pink sister did not seem to hear her though as she simply continued to strike poses with her large Icecalibur blade. Knowing from experience that trying to get Ram's attention at the moment was a pointless endeavor, Rom instead just gave a sigh and kept her eyes on the nearby woods for the next wave of robotic victims.

Meanwhile, standing a safe distance away from the destructive duo, C-Sha was busy keeping tabs on the battlefield with a watchful eye. So far, she had managed to keep the inevitable collateral damage to a minimum but there had still been a few close calls. During the last several skirmishes, several of the Alloy Gears that had been equipped with missile launchers had haphazardly shot out their payloads right before Ram had unleashed her revengeance on them. While C-Sha had shot down most of these wayward projectiles with her iconic Mega Buster cannon, some of them had still managed to slip by and spiraled off in the general direction of the broadcast tower. Luckily, it seemed as if all these missiles had detonated in the air before reaching the tower but it had been hard to accurately tell due to the distance. The lack of angry calls from Noire though added credence to the assumption that the base defenses had not been compromised.

"Hey Rom!" Apparently having gotten bored of doing random victory poses, Ram finally turned her attention back to her sister. "Wanna see who can destroy the most Alloy Gears during the next wave? The winner gets to choose which one of Blanc's books to draw pictures in!"

Rom responded with an eager smile that juxtaposed her usual quiet demeanor. "Okay! I really want to illustrate that book about the glittering werewolf girl!"

"Aw, that one's boring!" Ram argued. "If I win, we're drawing in that story about the short, flat-chested girl who ends up marrying all those pretty idol boys!"

C-Sha barely managed to stifle a laugh at the twin's conversation. As irresponsible as it was, the unofficial babysitter could not find it in herself to chastise the two kids for their plan while they were obviously having so much fun. Plus, it was also hard to deny the fact that watching Blanc going completely apeshit at times was more than a little entertaining.

Before the buxom fighter could decide whether or not to loan the twins a box of colored permanent markers again, the next batch of Alloy Gears finally burst through the treeline.

"About time!" Ram yelled, her staff-turned-sword immediately held up into a combat stance. "Now I'm going to show you why they call me Ram the Ripper! RULES OF NATURE! YEEEEEEAAAAAAH!"

Rom gave a sigh at her sister's nonsensical war cry before raising her own staff with a determined look. "I'm sorry, but in the end it has to be this way."

As the loli brigade charged forward and redefined the term 'overkill', C-Sha could not help but get the feeling that their battle against the robot menace was just a bit _too_ easy. For all the worry that Noire had expressed about the Alloy Gears, the walking battle tanks that they had intercepted had turned out to be little more than a minor nuisance at best. Even considering that these were merely knock-offs made by K-Sha's former mercenary group, the Alloy Gears' poor combat effectiveness made it seem odd as to why the Yandere Queen had bothered to activate them in the first place. The Swarm was powerful enough as is and C-Sha highly doubted a couple of these robots would have made much of difference even if they had joined up with the main army. It what they had fought so far was supposed to force out Noire into open combat and tire her out, then K-Sha had either severely underestimated her opponents (which was about as likely as Blanc becoming Lowee's best-selling author) or...

The main attack force had yet to appear.

Just as C-Sha came upon this epiphany, all of the remaining Alloy Gears suddenly froze as if receiving some kind of transmission before swiftly turning tail and retreating back into the woods.

"Hey!" Ram angrily shouted. "You can't just run away like that! Me and Rom haven't finished our contest yet! Come back here so we can destroy you some more!"

"Um... I'm pretty sure I would have won even if you destroyed all of the remaining ones," Rom said. "You were spending too much time slicing them up even after you destroyed them."

Ram gave her sister a petulant look. "No, _I_ was the one winning! I get bonus points for looking more awesome while I was kicking their butts! You were just using boring old ice magic to-"

Thankfully, the budding argument was cut short as an enormous tremor suddenly shook the entire clearing.

"Um... What was that?"

Rom's question was simply answered by yet another large, booming quake. Quickly gathering themselves together in a defensive formation, the trio apprehensively turned towards the forest in front of them as the shaking got progressively more frequent. Soon, something that sounded like hundreds of trees being toppled in the far distance became audible as well.

"Are these... footsteps?" C-Sha murmured in disbelief. However, she noticed that there something slightly off about the timings of the tremors. The supposed footfalls were highly inconsistent, almost as if there were more than just one set of feet making them. In fact, it almost felt as if there were at least three.

At this thought, the Gold Third leader vaguely recalled the intel about the exact number of Alloy Gears that their Hunter scouting party had provided for them several months ago. Or at least, that's how much time C-Sha felt like had passed since the meeting took place even though it could not have been more than just a few minutes prior. Ignoring the strange sound of a certain wall breaking somewhere, the buxom fighter instead focused on remembering the info she had forgotten about due to the bizarre passage of time as well as all the craziness that had taken place since then.

"Oh... right." Just as C-Sha finally recalled that critical piece of information and realized what exactly was going on, the ominous shaking suddenly came to a stop.

"Well... this can't be good."

As if to confirm C-Sha's statement, three enormous metal heads dramatically rose out of the towering treeline before letting loose a collective earth-shattering roar.

* * *

 **Western Perimeter Secondary Defense Line**

 **Several minutes prior...**

Following their brief interlude in the tower, Noire and Vert had done a quick aerial reconnaissance over the surrounding area and found that things were much more dire than they had imagined. Even while dodging an endless rain of body pillows and poster tubes that were thrown at them, they still managed to see that the entire outer district, and possibly the whole city, had been completely occupied. In fact, the only real gap in the staggering mass of bodies they saw was to the east; an area that was completely blocked off by a large mountain bordering the sea. They were very much trapped between a rock and a hard place by this point and their only hope of survival now hinged on what Noire believed to be an extremely foolhardy plan.

Still, this did not stop the Lastation CPU from continuing to fight back against their almost inevitable demise. With their sweep complete, Noire and Vert headed towards the western main road which they had seen being under the heaviest pressure. With most of K-Sha's broods convening in from their aborted invasion into Planeptune, it made sense that most of their forces would be concentrated there. Rom had already accounted for this and had stationed extra defenders there but the overwhelming numbers were beginning to take its toll. By the time the two of them arrived, the soldiers had already fallen back to their second defensive line with even that being on the verge of collapse as well. Thankfully, the two goddesses were more than enough to turn the tide of the battle and prevent that from happening.

"Ugh! Just how many of you idiots are there?!"

With a frustrated yell, Noire, back in her human form, swung her stun baton up just in time to parry the wooden sword that had been aimed for her head. The fan wielding the cheap cosplay prop did not answer her as he instead tried to disengage from the unexpected block. Noire was not having any of that though as the instant the armed fan began to pull away, she lashed out and smacked him in the face with an open palm strike. Though the blow was hardly more than a mere poke for the goddess, it was still strong enough to bodily stagger the fan which gave her ample time to jab him in the chest with her electrified weapon.

Noire paused out of habit to give her fallen opponent a contemptuous huff when nearly thirty nearby fans leaped towards her in an attempt to dog pile her. The CPU barely managed to notice the threat in time and was just about to leap out of the way when a blast of green-tinted wind magic flew in from behind. The unexpected gale swept aside Noire's would-be assailants like a bunch of dead leaves as well as knocking down most of the reinforcing fans. Using this opportunity to jump back behind her riot shield squad for some breathing room, Noire looked around and spotted Vert standing next to the taser squadron. The blonde goddess returned her gaze with a rather distracted look as she lowered her hand that had been covered in residual green share energy.

"This isn't the time to be showing off, Noire," the blonde goddess reprimanded, her usual serene smile replaced with a tired frown. "I'd appreciate it if you kept your theatrics to a minimum and focused on dealing with this threat. The sooner we deal with these fans, the sooner I can... well..."

The rest trailed off into a quiet mumble but Noire could easily guess what she was talking about. More than likely, her companion's odd behavior was due to her worry about her missing brother (whatever the sudden reason for that was). During their scouting sweep, the two of them had learned from the soldiers at the southern entrance that the annoying little brat had been helping defend the area until just a few minutes before the two CPUs had arrived. Apparently, he had received a call from someone before immediately teleporting away. Though Noire had simply dismissed the info, Vert was still clearly bothered by the news of the kid's absence.

With a small mental sigh, Noire decided that she would need to help lighten Vert's anxiety. Obviously, this was just to ensure that her ally could fight more efficiently in battle and nothing else. It most certainly was not because Noire was concerned about her close acquaintance or anything like that. That would have been simply ridiculous.

"Hmph! It's not considered showing off if everyone already knows how great you are!" Noire declared, trying her best to sound as obnoxious as possible. "I'm just giving my audience the show they deserve!"

If there was one thing that Noire could count on to distract Vert from her worried thoughts, it was offering her the chance to tease her. As annoying as it was, Noire knew that there was no way that Vert would let such a prime opportunity slip her by. Just to sweeten the deal a bit further, Noire also decided to take a light jab at Vert as well. "Besides, at least I'm not lounging around in the back and then jumping in at the last minute to steal all the glory like you."

For a second, Noire was afraid Vert would not take the obvious bait but it soon turned out that her ploy had succeeded as the blonde's troubled demeanor slowly cracked.

"Oh? Is that how you see it?" Vert's fondness for teasing Noire seemed to be a lot greater than expected as her frown melted away into a sly grin. "It figures you would be starving for attention even with all these fans after you. I do suppose it really isn't all that surprising considering that this is you we're talking about here. And for the record, I'm fairly certain that I've taken down more than twice the number of fans you have with just my spells. I believe that constitutes as far more than simply 'lounging around' as you put it."

While a small part of Noire was relieved that Vert was back to normal, her Tsundere side could not help but become angrily flustered even from the expected taunt.

"Oh, shut up," she snapped back. "If you're so great, why don't you come join me out here instead of hanging out in the back?"

Vert just gave a small chuckle at her successful goading. Finally looking more like her usual cheery self, she pulled out the electric-tipped stun pike she had picked up during their reconnaissance mission and jumped to the frontlines in a single graceful leap.

"Shall we make it so that the person who takes down the most fans gets treated to an all-you-can-eat cake buffet?" Vert challenged, flourishing her spear with absolute confidence.

Noire answered her with an irritated growl. "You still owe me several billion Credits from when I let you stay at my place, you know." Even while saying that, she twirled about her stun baton in her hand to match Vert's theatrics. "Still, I'm not going to say no to some free cake. I just hope you have enough money to cover everything when I win."

Vert simply smiled as the two of them got into their respective combat stances. With one final nod towards each other, the two goddesses dived into the action for real.

The riot shield squad that had been holding back the fans until now quickly noticed their approach and stepped aside to let them pass. Moving as a barely perceivable black and green blur, the heavenly duo rushed in and slammed into the fans that had been trying to take advantage of the supposed opening. The unexpected charge caught the fans off-guard and immediately sent the entire group flying into the center of massive crowd behind them. Bodies literally went flying into the air from the impact while Noire and Vert wasted no time in mopping up the unaffected fans standing to the sides of the main road.

"Fall Slash!"

"Rainy Ratnapura!"

The fans on the left found themselves blasted away by an enormous wave of electrical energy that emanated from Noire's baton. Meanwhile, the fans on the right were felled by the dozens as Vert delivered a flurry of lightning fast strikes with her stun pike. In less than five seconds, the entire front squadron of fans had been decimated with the rest scrambling to regroup themselves with their allies in the back.

"Fifty-three," Vert declared, her eyes remaining on the reforming crowd of fans. "Eighty-three if you include the group we tackled together."

"Those don't count," Noire replied with a rare smile. "And fifty-seven for me. Looks like that cake buffet is as good as mine."

Vert gave a small laugh as she shifted her weapon. "Oh, I'd say there's more than enough fans heading towards us right now for me to even up the score."

Right on cue, the second wave of fans swarmed towards them en masse. The two CPUs charged in without missing a beat as they soon became lost within the mob around them.

"Fifty-four, fifty-eight, sixty, sixty-seven..." The stun pike Vert was holding began to look more like a gray-colored blur than anything as she swung her new weapon about with stunning skill and grace. Those who were not being struck down by the pike's electrified tip instead found themselves flying through the air as Vert deftly swatted them aside with her weapon's shaft. As for the few that managed to get past her devastating strikes, they were hurled aside by the miniature green cyclone that Vert summoned to shield herself. Against the large group of low level enemies, Vert's usual battle style of delivering a multitude of relatively weak attacks worked absolute wonders as she utterly decimated the fans' ranks.

As she counted out her ninety-sixth fallen foe, Vert looked over to her partner to see how she was doing.

"How many fans are you up to Noire?"

The twin-tailed goddess did not immediately answer as she kicked aside an approaching fangirl before briefly charging up to unleash one of her SP skills.

"Lacy Dance!" As her whirling strikes came to a close, Noire quickly tallied up the mass of unconscious fans that fell to the ground around her. "Eighty-five, eighty-nine... Darn it! Only ninety-two!"

Vert let out a satisfied laugh at that. "It seems the cake is going to be nothing more than a lie for you."

All the adrenaline pumping through Noire seemed to dampen her usual Tsundere attitude as she answered with a teasing grin instead. "Really Vert? You're using such an outdated reference like that to taunt me? Honestly, I think you're starting to lose your touch."

The two shared a brief grin at their banter before the mass of fans pressed forward once more. With a pair of rallying shouts, Noire and Vert eagerly returned to their little competition with smiles on their faces.

* * *

Their enthusiasm lasted the whole of five minutes.

"Five hundred twenty four... Five hundred twenty- HOW MANY MORE ARE THERE?!"

Noire's frustrations quickly set back in as the endless tide of fans continued to surge towards her. Even with Vert's direct help, they barely seemed to make a dent in their enemies' numbers. If anything, there appeared to be even more fans than before as they attacked not only the two CPUs but also the soldiers in the back as well. Apparently, K-Sha had learned from her battle with Sync that taking out the long-range support was a top priority as she diverted a large number of her swarm to directly assault the taser and tranquilizer squads. Noire and Vert tried their best to hold the fans back but the large width of the main road meant that more than a fair share of them managed to make their way around them. As such, the riot shield squad had been under a lot of pressure as they valiantly tried to hold the line and protect their gunners.

"Lady Black Heart!" the captain of the shield squad shouted out. "We can't maintain this position for much longer! We need to-"

The rest of his words were drowned out when several ear-splitting roars suddenly echoed out from the distance. Both warring parties froze at the unexpected interruption as the once chaotic battlefield fell into a rather unnatural silence. Noire, Vert, and the soldiers disregarded their enemies for a bit as they looked around in surprise for the source of the sound. Meanwhile, the fans were all staring ahead uncertainly as if they were waiting for their Queen to tell them how to proceed with this new development.

Eventually, it was Noire who broke the unsettling stillness around her.

"What... was that?"

None of the nearby soldiers bothered to answer her as they were too busy staring towards the direction of the northern forest where they had traced back the sound to. Unfortunately, the city's towering architecture once again turned out to be a source of annoyance as the skyscrapers obstructed the entire view of the outlying forest.

Before anyone could say anything else, the mass of fans suddenly snapped back to attention once more. It seemed that whatever had made the sound was either on K-Sha's side or of no concern to her as the fans resumed their attack with even more fervor than before.

"Noire! Behind-!"

Vert's warning did not come out in time as a trio of fans slipped past Noire's momentarily relaxed guard and latched onto her arms and back. The CPU quickly spun around with immense force, sending the fan on her left arm flying, but the other two managed to hang on and began dragging her down. While the attacking pair did not pose much of a direct threat to Noire, they managed to slow her down enough for the rest of the swarm to move in and grab onto her like a horde of ravenous zombies.

"Kyaaa! Where do you creeps think you're touching?!"

The fans paid no heed to their victim's distress as more and more of them latched onto her body. Even with her strength, Noire could not dislodge herself from the sheer number of fans as their weight firmly held her down in place. In a last-ditch effort, she even activated her HDD to try and fly out but that too was quickly foiled when a fan suddenly bludgeoned her across the head with a wooden bat. With the goddess momentarily stunned, even more fans began to pile in around her until only the top of her white hair could be seen amongst the literal mountain of bodies covering her.

"Hold on Noire! I'm coming!"

Vert had flown into action the moment her friend had been grabbed and tried her best to cleave through the fans separating the two of them. Unfortunately, the fans fought back with a previously unseen ferocity as they relentlessly threw themselves forward to protect their claimed prize. Even with Vert knocking out dozens of fans at a time with her weapon and spells, the distance between her and Noire refused to get any smaller. The soldiers in the back also tried to aid their captured goddess but the distance between them meant they could do little more than drop a few wayward fans with their long-range weaponry. As the heroes watched in horror, the last remaining vestige of the Lastation CPU began to slowly sink from view as the fans began to fully drag her down into their midst.

"Noire!" Vert desperately tried to activate her own HDD as well but the fans did not give her the opportunity to do so. Suddenly finding herself on the defensive against the aggressive onslaught, Vert could only hold out her hand in a futile gesture to reach her friend. "NOOOOO! Noire! I still need you to buy me cake!"

Just as it seemed that all hope had been lost, the heavens themselves suddenly spoke up in an irritatingly cheerful voice.

"About to be captured by the fans again, dear? Honestly, people are going to start thinking that you actually enjoy being kidnapped."

Everyone looked up in surprise to find a Lowee airship flying high above the battlefield covered in a rapidly fading green glow. While the fans and the soldiers were busy trying to figure out where the ship had come from, Vert's attention was drawn to one of the ship's side hatches as it opened up to reveal a familiar figure. Even from the distance, she could still make out the signature green coat as it flapped about wildly in the breeze while his distinctive golden hair seemed to gleam with the rays of the setting sun.

"Sync?"

Almost as if hearing her, the boy turned his head towards her while continuing to hang out from the side of the airship. The next thing Vert knew, she was covered in a familiar green shroud of share energy before suddenly finding herself falling face-first onto a cold metal floor.

 _Thud!_

"Owww... What-? What just happened?"

As Vert slowly picked herself up, she heard a muffled groan echo her sentiments from her left.

"Ugh... that's what I'd like to know."

Looking over to her side, Vert spotted Noire sprawled face-down before her once more while still in her HDD form. Seeing this, the Leanbox CPU had to momentarily debate whether or not to snap a picture of her friend/rival in her humiliating position before eventually thinking better of it. As great as it would have been to have some future blackmail material, Vert was not such a terrible person as to kick her friend while she was already down.

"Here," Vert said instead, offering her hand to Noire. "At least get yourself off the floor first."

Noire accepted the help while uttering a barely audible 'thanks' under her breath. Meanwhile, Vert quickly took a look at her surroundings and realized that she was somehow inside the bridge of their airship. Factoring in the green glow from before, it was not that hard to figure out what exactly had happened. Before Vert could address one of the four Hunters who were currently focused intently on their respective control panels, the passage door behind her slid open.

"Alright, I've closed the outer hatch," Sync announced to the crew, acknowledging the two stunned goddesses with only a brief nod. Before either of them could speak up, he purposefully stepped forward to the main viewing port with his hands clasped behind his back. He straightened up once reaching his destination and silently gazed down at the sea of fans below him. The imperious atmosphere he set up for himself was slightly marred though by the childish grin still on his face. "You may fire when ready."

"Aw, yeah!" the head pilot shouted out. "It's high noon, bitches!"

The rest of the Hunters simply gave a loud sigh at their leader's antics before activating the ship's weapons array. The bridge itself actually shook a bit as more than forty different turrets all fired simultaneously. Directed by the ship's targeting system, the hail of tranquilizer darts, stun grenades, and taser bombs mowed down the fans with pinpoint accuracy and efficiency.

"You should tell your men to retreat to the final defense line, dear," Sync suddenly spoke up, not taking his eye off the devastation below. "I've already told the northern and southern forces to pull back and we don't want our soldiers here to end up being surrounded."

It was a good thing the Lastation CPU was a lot less of a Tsundere in her HDD form as she quickly moved to follow his advice rather than wasting time getting flustered at his minor tease. She did, however, spare some time to walk up and roughly smack him on the back of his head before stalking over to the Hunter offering her the ship's speaker controls.

"Attention all units!" Noire called out, doing her best to ignore the cheeky grin Sync sent her way while rubbing his sore head. "This is Lady Black Heart speaking! Fall back to our final defense line immediately! We'll cover your retreat from here so get moving!"

The soldiers below spent a few seconds letting out a loud cheer at finding out their goddess was alright before dutifully following through with their orders. With the soldiers safely evacuating and the airship continuing to rain heavenly judgment on the fans, Noire finally had the opportunity to directly address her savior.

"Where in Celestia's name have you been?!"

The lack of gratitude hardly seemed to surprise Sync at all as he simply relaxed into his usual carefree pose and turned around to face her with a smile.

"Why are you asking? Did you really miss me that much, dear?"

Rather than flying into a frenzy like in her human form, Noire simply moved in to smack the boy over the head once again with her gauntleted hand.

"Ow..." Despite the rapidly swelling bump he sustained, Sync still managed to maintain his smile. "Heh heh. You really get more straight-forward when you transform, you know that?"

Noire let out an irritated growl as she crossed her arms. "I wasn't asking where you were for my sake," she clarified. "I'm just asking because this idiot right here," she pointed at Vert, "wouldn't stop fretting about you."

Vert made a small choking noise to this while Sync raised an eyebrow at his sister as his smile momentarily faded. The Leanbox CPU seemed to immediately notice the change in his expression as she quickly recovered from her shock and stared back at the boy with a critical look of her own. The bizarre stare down only lasted for a second though before Sync let out something that sounded vaguely like a barely audible sigh. Abruptly turning away from his confused-looking sister, he instead faced Noire with a smile back on his face.

"Thanks for babysitting sis by the way. It's good to see that you kept her from wandering away like a lost puppy again."

"H...Hey!" Vert indignantly interjected.

"Anyways," Sync continued on, his smile widening just a bit further. "The reason I disappeared for a bit was because your mechanics needed some help fixing up this airship. Some of the damaged components needed to be replaced entirely so I had to teleport out into the city and raid a few hardware stores. And let me tell you, performing a stealth retrieval mission is not easy when almost every street is crammed full of enemies."

Noire silently took in all of this information before giving the boy an admonishing glare. "You better not have just stolen those parts, you know."

"Of course not," Sync replied with a smile. "I left them all a note telling them to bill everything to your Basilicom."

Noire looked very much like she wanted to cave his skull in for good this time but eventually seemed to decide that he was not worth the effort. Instead, she just let out an enormous sigh as she massaged her temples with her right hand.

"You two idiots are definitely related," she muttered irritably towards the blondes. "Both of you are obsessed with making my life miserable and want to bankrupt my entire nation."

Once again, Vert just looked over at the boy with something resembling an inquisitive look instead of loudly protesting against the remark. Sync refused to meet her eye this time though as he simply turned to stare out the nearby window as if seeing, or more likely, _sensing_ , something the others could not.

"Hmm," he eventually mused out loud, completely ignoring his sister's increasingly intense gaze. "Looks like the three of them are having much more trouble with those Alloy Gears than I thought."

Noire snapped back to attention at this as she looked up with a frown. "Alloy Gears? Oh, that's right. The ones that Ram, Rom, and C-Sha were dealing with. Then those roars we heard earlier were-?"

Her question was interrupted when Sync suddenly moved over and grabbed onto her arm.

"Hey! What do you think you're-?"

Her indignant cry was cut short again as he began to drag her forward until he was close enough to grab onto his sister's arm as well.

"What are you-?"

Still refusing to directly acknowledge his sister, Sync instead turned his attention towards the Hunters.

"You guys should start moving the airship back towards the tower," he suggested. "K-Sha might decide to personally move in and take down the ship if you stick around here for too long."

"You got it," the pilot answered before giving him a thumbs-up. "Good luck with your hunt!"

"Oh, I'm just acting as the taxi service for this fight," Sync answered with a smile, a faint green glow beginning to cover him and his passengers. "These two are the ones that are going to be doing all the heavy lifting."

"Huh?" Vert intelligently inquired.

Sync did not bother to answer her as he simply closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate on something. After a few seconds, he lazily opened his right eye and addressed both goddesses with a wide grin.

"I'd tell you two to prepare yourselves but we're more than likely going to end up face-down in the dirt either way. Well, here goes nothing!"

With that reassuring statement, one smiling CPU Candidate and two extremely worried-looking CPUs vanished from the airship in a flash of green.


	12. Legacy of the Tsun (Pt 1)

**Ch 12: Legacy of the Tsun (Pt 1)**

"Why. Won't. You. DIIIIIIE?!"

With a furious yell, Ram flew up to her adversary in her HDD form and swung her Icecalibur blade with all her childish fury. Unfortunately for her, the sword simply shattered upon impact with the high-density metal. Just like the last twenty-three times the rage-filled loli had tried.

"Mrgrgr! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" The sheer amount of anger and frustration radiating off of the pink-haired girl in that moment made it very clear why she was Blanc's younger sister. Unlike with the older Goddess of Wrath however, Ram vented her anger by throwing a verbal temper tantrum rather than demolishing everything within a hundred meter radius of her with a hammer. Her tirade only came to an end a full minute later when she leveled an accusing finger at the source of her ire with a glare that could have shot out lasers if it had been any more intense.

"What stupid dummy made a robot this stupidly big and hard to beat?!"

The only sound to answer her was the crashing footsteps of the said 'stupidly big robot' as it continued its unhindered march through the city streets.

As it was, the robot that was causing Ram so much of a headache was actually a twelve-story tall Alloy Gear; one of the three that had made such a grand entrance back at the forest in fact. Bearing a sleek, aerodynamic form, the metal monstrosity had a rather reptilian appearance with its triangular-shaped head, long armored tail, and an enormous pair of double-jointed legs supporting it all. The Alloy Gear did not have any arms though as it instead had two wing-like appendages equipped on either side of its massive body. These building-sized wings most likely housed its main weaponry but it had yet to unveil any of them seeing as how it clearly did not view the pink-haired loli as a credible threat. In fact, the only offensive move it had made so far was to fire at Ram with its shoulder and leg turrets whenever she happened to wander too close to them. As was expected, Ram _really_ did not appreciate being disregarded like this and was very much at her wit's end.

With another loud yell that sounded far more adorable than threatening, the younger twin shot out a concentrated beam of ice at her opponent's face. The attack proved to be just as ineffective as everything else she had done however as the ice beam merely ricocheted off of the Alloy Gear's upper jaw and flew directly back towards her. Swerving about just in time to avoid getting frozen by her own spell, Ram turned back on her still-uninterested enemy while waving her arms about in a rage-induced fit.

"GAAAAAH! I've had enough of you!" she finally erupted. "You think you're so cool and tough, you big dummy? Fine! I'll show you what I'm really made of!"

With that, the little girl pulled out the wooden staff that Sync had gotten for her during their dimensional side trip. With her new staff in her right hand and her main one still in her left, she flew straight up until she was hovering about a hundred meters over her opponent. With a manic smile on her face and absolutely no regard at all for her surroundings, she swung both of her weapons downward with dreadful finality.

"EXPLOOOOOOOSION!"

The giant Alloy Gear had just enough time to look up at the shout before a massive fireball engulfed it's entire form... along with the entire city block surrounding it. Thankfully, there were no fans in the area as they had already retreated from the northern sector to make way for the giant robots. The smaller, generic Alloy Gears that had been following its bigger counterpart were not quite as lucky, however, as they were immediately atomized by the blast. Buildings, signs, and abandoned cars were all vaporized in an instant as the magical fire mercilessly swept through the land. As the blinding flash of red and orange slowly faded away, a miniature mushroom cloud could be seen rising over the detonation site. All in all, the explosion was a spectacle worthy of awing even a group of transforming alien robots.

After letting out a cough from all the smoke that her attack had created, Ram looked down at her handiwork with a satisfied smile.

"Ha! How do you like that, you big stupid piece of junk?! I bet you're not so-"

Her cheers were short-lived as a large gust of wind suddenly blew all of the smoke away to reveal the completely unscathed form of the giant Alloy Gear standing below her. As Ram watched with her mouth open in disbelief, the robot scanned the giant crater it was now standing in before glancing back up and tilting its head as if to say 'really?' Not waiting for the stunned girl to respond, the robot gave what could only have been a shrug with its large wings before simply facing forward again and continuing its march.

"Wha-?" Ram eventually let out. "But I- How-?"

Before she could properly settle back into her rage-filled state, she caught a flash of green at the edge of her vision. Turning around, her eyes immediately locked onto the top of a tall building that had been just far enough away to avoid her fiery devastation. Falling out of a green portal that had most likely caused the earlier flash, a familiar coat-wearing figure landed onto the rooftop with all the grace of a sack of potatoes. Luckily for him, he happened to land on top of a goddess-shaped landing cushion who had just fallen out of the portal before him. As the white-haired woman no doubt let out an indignant squawk at the sudden weight on her back, another blond-haired person fell out of the portal and landed onto the rooftop face-first. The green spatial tear quickly faded away from existence after that as the three newcomers flailed about in an effort to right themselves.

"Ah! Sync!" Ram's face brightened up for the first time since her battle with the giant Alloy Gear. Without wasting a moment, the pink-haired girl headed towards the direction of her personal manservant. "He'll probably have something to help me beat that stupid bucket of bolts!"

As she flew, Ram looked over to her side to see how her sister and C-Sha were doing. Standing several miles off from each other, she spotted two other giant Alloy Gears that looked identical to the one she had just faced. Though they had all started out from the forest, the robots had taken diverging paths towards what could only be assumed to be the broadcast tower. At the moment, they were casually making their way through the streets while paying just as much attention to C-Sha and Rom as the other robot had to Ram. Even with C-Sha unleashing her full martial prowess in her Gold Third form and Rom methodically firing off a wide array of elemental spells at potential weak spots, the robots refused to give them any inkling of acknowledgment as all of the attacks bounced harmlessly off their metal exoskeleton.

Ram could not help but grit her teeth in frustration at the sight of her teammates failing to stop the stupid robots as well. With a renewed sense of urgency, she flew even faster towards their unexpected backup. As she neared the rooftop, she finally managed to overhear what the three now-standing people were saying.

"...doing that on purpose!" Noire (who was in her HDD form for some reason) was heard yelling. "I've seen you teleport around without landing on your idiotic face all the time!"

"That's only when I'm warping around in my set radius," Sync casually answered, his demeanor as carefree as ever. "I think I mentioned this before but my control slips up drastically if I try to warp anything further away than that."

"And just how large is this radius of yours then?" Noire quickly shot back.

Sync answered with a sly smile. "Information like that doesn't come cheap, you know. For you though, I'd be willing to give a hint if you simply agree to accompany me on a romantic date to-" He froze as he suddenly seemed to notice something.

"Note to self," he abruptly muttered, "remember to immediately turn my spatial awareness back on after performing a warp."

Ignoring the confused looks he got from Noire and Vert, he looked up with a rather wary smile only to find a pink-haired loli glaring murderously down at him. "Hey, nice to see you again Ram! Heh heh... Just out of curiosity, how much of my conversation with Noire did you manage to-"

He quickly teleported out of the way as Ram shot a blast of ice magic at his face. Not to anyone's surprise, Noire happened to have the bad luck of getting caught in the dodged attack as she found her left hand completely encased in a block of ice.

"You little brats!"

The goddess's scream went completely ignored as Sync reappeared a few meters away with his hands raised up to Ram in a gesture of surrender.

"Sorry, sorry," he quickly apologized before the short-tempered girl could unleash another attack. "It was just a joke. Besides, you know I'm not actually interested in girls with nasty attitude problems who try to look cute by tying their hair up into twin-tails."

"NO ONE DISRESPECTS THE TWIN-TAILS!" Noire all but screeched as she tried to club the boy with her frozen hand. "AND I DON'T HAVE AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM!"

Ram just watched with her arms crossed as Noire and Sync continued to play an improvised game of whack-a-mole with Sync constantly teleporting away to avoid getting his head smashed in by the furious goddess. Once Noire had finally vented most of her anger and stopped to catch her breath, Ram flew down to Sync and jabbed him in the chest with her finger.

"You. Are. Mine," she declared, enunciating each word with a painful poke. "You're my personal servant and you're going to marry me in the future! No one else is allowed to date you or be your wife! Well, except for Rom but we already agreed to share you so she doesn't count!"

Ram ignored the sudden spluttering noise that Vert made at this as she glared intently at Sync instead. Her servant looked like he wanted to say something to her rant but eventually settled for simply giving a lighthearted shrug and nodding. Of course, if it had been anyone other than him answering her like this, Ram would have frozen them on the spot for not taking her seriously. Sync, however, was her personal servant so he was allowed some extra mercy as she accepted his half-hearted response.

"Good!" she said with a satisfied smile. "I'm glad you understand now."

"Ahem," Noire suddenly interrupted. As Ram turned to face her, the Lastation CPU extended her frozen hand towards her with a pointed glare. No other words were necessary as Ram let out quiet grumble before quickly looking through her inventory for a healing item.

"Er... I'm sure I had an Ice Heal in here somewhere," the little girl muttered as she continued digging through her inventory space. After a few more seconds of searching, she seemed to give up and grabbed a different item instead. "Ugh, fine. I guess I can let you use this Lava Cookie instead."

Noire took the lumpy, burnt looking cookie that Ram handed her with with a suspicious gaze.

"You want me to eat this?"

"Duh," Ram said, rolling her eyes as if Noire had just asked something incredibly stupid. "What, you want to rub the cookie over your frozen hand or something?"

Still looking rather skeptical, Noire took a bite of the cookie before almost hacking it back up at the ashen taste. Seeing that Ram was not laughing at her and simply watched with her arms crossed, the Lastation CPU figured this was not a prank and that the medicine was supposed to taste this way. With a visible grimace, she reluctantly consumed the cookie as fast as she could. Surprisingly, the ice around her hand began to immediately thaw as soon as she finished her vile-tasting snack. In a matter of seconds, Noire's hand was completely free as she flexed her now-unfrozen appendage with an expression caught somewhere between surprise and disbelief.

"Lowee medicine's weird," she eventually said with a slight gag, trying her best to ignore the burnt aftertaste still in her mouth.

Ignoring the indignant huff from Ram, Noire turned her eyes towards the streets below only to freeze entirely this time as she finally noticed the enormous crater in front of her.

"What the hell happened to my city?!" she yelled, immediately turning back around to face the obvious culprit.

Ram's angry look quickly faded away as her eyes began to shift about nervously. "Um... the robot did it?"

Before Noire could unleash an explosion herself, Sync suddenly let out a sudden, impressed-sounding whistle.

"Dang. I sensed that these Alloy Gears were big but seeing them in person definitely makes them seem a lot more impressive."

Noire shot a final glare towards the sheepishly grinning loli before looking over to where the boy was staring at. Next to her, Vert leaned forward a bit to spot the Alloy Gears that the boy was referring to as well.

"Oh my," the Leanbox CPU breathed out, spotting the enormous robots that had managed to put quite a bit of distance between them during the little interlude. "I never expected some mere knock-offs made by the Order to look that imposing."

"Those aren't knock-offs," Noire suddenly whispered out, her eyes widening in recognition as she spotted the robots. The other three people turned to her with varying degrees of confusion as Noire clenched her hands into fists. "Those three are actual Alloy Gear RAYs. They're part of the group of Alloy Gears that my nation happened to lose several years ago."

"How do you _lose_ an Alloy Gear?" Vert asked incredulously.

"Hey! It was just after the Deity of Sin fiasco, okay?!" Noire countered hotly. "You know just as well as I do how chaotic things were back then!" After taking a deep breath, Noire continued on with her explanation. "Anyways, the Alloy Gears were originally stored in a bunker relatively close to the Gamindustri Graveyard so we assumed they were all destroyed when the entire area disappeared. I guess the Order must have preemptively raided the place during all the confusion and relocated them to the hidden armory that K-Sha eventually found them in."

"Huh," Sync said in a thoughtful manner. "I read that the Order tried to take over Lastation during the events of V-II's Gold Third arc. If they had such a powerful weapon, I'm surprised they didn't try to use it against you during your storyline."

Noire rolled her eyes at the fourth wall breaking but answered anyways. "More than likely, they were planning on selling these Alloy Gears rather than actually using them. Besides, the Order was more than confident that their anti-CPU virus could finish off both me and Uni during that final fight." She inwardly winced at that particular painful memory. "In a way, it's kind of ironic that K-Sha was the one who ended up saving the day during that battle," she muttered mostly to herself.

Vert paid little attention to her friend's reminiscing as a familiar teasing grin suddenly formed on her lips. "Speaking of Uni, you haven't mentioned her even once during this entire mess. Could it be that you'd forgotten about your own little sister?"

"W...What?!" Noire replied, managing to get flustered even in her HDD state. "What are you talking about? Of course I'm worried about her! I just didn't mention her because I have absolute confidence that she can take care of herself!"

"Admit it," Sync said, quickly mirroring his sister's grin. "You completely forgot about her until now,"

Noire tried not to react to the obvious goading but found herself quickly cracking under the pressure of the two annoyingly identical smug looks aimed her way.

"I did _not_ forget about Uni!" the Tsundere goddess finally cried out, angrily stamping her foot on the ground just as she would in her human form.

The two Leanbox siblings shared a brief laugh at the results of their successful teasing before suddenly stopping as their eyes met. Sync quickly gave a forced cough and looked away while Vert just pegged him with the same questioning look from before.

As Noire began to loudly complain that her life was being ruined by a pair of blond weirdos, Ram simply looked out into the party-destroyed city with a rather bored look. Having lost interest in the conversation a while ago, the pink-haired girl tried to see if she could still spot Rom and C-Sha in the distance. As she strained her eyes towards the two Alloy Gears they had been fighting, she spotted two blue figures suddenly making their way towards her. Apparently, Rom and C-Sha had finally taken notice of the impromptu gathering and decided to rendezvous with them.

"Heeeeey!" Ram enthusiastically called out while waving her arms. "Rom! C-Sha! Over here!"

Noire paused in her rant as she and her two tormentors looked over at the sudden shout. Following Ram's gaze, they spotted Rom flying towards them in her HDD form while C-Sha kept up with her by jumping from rooftop to rooftop in her Gold Third form. After a few seconds, both of them landed in front of the gathered party looking rather winded from their battle.

"Big bro!" Rom called out, her face immediately brightening at Sync's presence. "What are you doing here?"

"To see you, of course!" Sync put on a cheerful grin as he gave the blue-haired girl an affectionate pat on the head. The sound of grinding teeth emanated from behind him causing him to briefly glance back at Vert. "Oh, and also to drop off Noire and sis for the shift change," he added as an afterthought.

"Well, it's a good thing you came when you did," C-Sha said, turning off her transformation and readjusting the blue beret that reappeared on her head. "These robots are far tougher than I gave them credit for."

"Oh, that's because they're actually real Alloy Gears and not some cheap bootlegs like we originally thought," Sync casually supplied.

Noire spent the next few seconds filling in a surprised-looking C-Sha and Rom about what exactly was going on before Sync cheerfully clapped his hands together.

"Alright! Now that we're all filled in, let's get moving again! We'll leave these three Alloy Gears to sis and Noire. Seeing as how our Tsun-Tsun goddess here was the one who ordered to have them built, I'm sure she has a way of dismantling them as well."

"Stop calling me Tsun-Tsun, dammit!"

"As for Ram, Rom, and C-Sha," Sync continued unabated, "I'll get you three back over to our main base so that you can take a brief rest. With the airship back up, I'm sure we can maintain the line for a couple of minutes without any further assistance. As for me, I'll be keeping watch with my powers and step in if anything unexpected occurs." With a rather confident smile, he looked around at the group gathered before him. "So, anything else we need to add before we split up?"

Ram looked over to where her metal nemesis was still casually walking away and gave it a piercing glare. "Grrr... I wanted to be the one to kick that stupid robot's butt," she muttered angrily.

"This is a job for a real CPU, kid," Noire answered with a haughty scoff.

Ram immediately threw an indignant look at the white-haired goddess.

"I'm not a kid! And I'm just as strong as a CPU! Do you want me to suplex you into the ground again to prove it, you Tsun-Tsun dummy?!"

Sync quickly put himself between his master and unofficial wife as sparks began to fly from their eyes.

"Okay, then!" he cut in, ushering Ram into a tight group with Rom and C-Sha. "We'll be taking off now! Oh, and sis? Try not to wander off again while no one's looking."

"Stop treating me like a wayward puppy!" Vert shouted.

Sync gave a short laugh at her reaction before turning back to Noire. "And one final piece of advice. K-Sha's probably programmed those Alloy Gears to target you specifically so they'll most likely go into a frenzy the moment they see you. Just make sure you're properly prepared for that."

"Hmph! Like I need advice from you of all people," Noire brushed off with a huff.

Sync just gave a cheerful shrug before focusing on locking onto his target coordinate. After a brief moment, he looked up and gave the two goddesses a final wave before teleporting himself and the Lowee group away.

Finding themselves finally alone, Noire let out a relieved sigh.

"Ugh. I thought those annoying brats would never leave." With a quick shake of her head, she put on her business face and pulled out her large energy sword with a flourish "Alright then. It's about time I showed these Alloy Gears the true power of a CPU!"

* * *

"STOP FIRING MISSILES AT MEEEEE!"

The three Alloy Gear RAYs chasing after Noire seemed to share Sync's sense of humor as they answered her screams by unleashing an even larger cluster of cruise missiles from their left wings.

Not surprisingly, things had not been going too well for the Tsundere goddess. Rather than listening to the boy's advice and taking some proper precautions, she had instead charged straight into battle with a loud battle cry. As a result, three major things had ended up happening in quick succession: First, the Alloy Gears immediately switched into battle mode upon noticing her presence and fired a massive barrage of missiles that even Cave would have found difficulty in avoiding. Second, Noire failed to change the trajectory of her charge in time and ended up colliding (and exploding) face-first into six different missiles at once. Third, Noire came to the conclusion that this was all some sort of karmic retribution against her for stealing one of Neptune's pudding cups several months ago.

Thankfully, the Lastation CPU was more than tough enough to survive the blast and ensuing fall to the ground. After dazedly pulling herself out of the enormous crater she had made, she wisely chose to reevaluate her strategy. Seeing the amount of collateral damage that just the first attack had caused, she decided that her first order of business would be to lure the Alloy Gears back to the forest before starting the battle in earnest. With that in mind, she had quickly taken to the skies again and began her retreat with three giant robots in close pursuit.

"Veeeeert!" Noire screamed out, performing a veritable air show in her attempt to dodge the missiles chasing her. "Stop fooling around and help get these things off of me!"

Vert, who had activated her own HDD by this point, looked up and gave a sigh at her friend's un-goddess-like behavior.

While Noire had been busy pulling a Leeroy Jenkins maneuver and blowing herself up, Vert had instead chosen to do something a bit more useful. Putting her years of raiding experience to use, she had decided to take care of the remaining mob of smaller Alloy Gears while Noire was drawing the aggro of the main bosses. Knowing just how frustrating it could be to have a bunch of trash mobs interrupting your focus during a boss fight, Vert had swiftly flown in to remove said annoyances. As it was, the task proved to be far easier than expected. Ram and Rom had already done quite a number to their ranks as barely thirty of the bootleg Alloy Gears were still operational. Also, unlike the formidable RAY models that were giving Noire such a hard time, the knock-offs were little more than metal paper-weights as Vert easily tore through their generic tank-like forms. By the time Noire had been screaming at Vert for help, all of the smaller Alloy Gears had been dealt with as the green-haired goddess tried to shake off the last remaining dregs of oil from her spear.

After enjoying the rather impressive air maneuvers that Noire was performing for a few more seconds, Vert finally decided to step in and help her friend.

"Inbetween Spear!"

A large volley of glowing green spears appeared out of thin air as they flew off to intercept the missiles. With stunning precision, all of the spears found their targets as the sky above exploded into a giant fireworks show.

With the smoke momentarily obscuring the Alloy Gears' vision, Vert quickly flew up to join the still-fleeing Noire as she gave the white-haired goddess a smug look.

"Honestly, Noire. Losing your composure like that over a few missiles? Whatever happened to all that earlier bravado of yours?"

"Shut it," Noire snarled, ignoring the enraged roars of the Alloy Gears behind them. "I was just focused on luring those missiles away from all the buildings, okay? I could have easily avoided them otherwise."

"Of course you could," Vert replied, her teasing tone stating otherwise.

Before Noire could angrily retort, a sudden burst of movement at the edges of their vision caught their attention. Simultaneously turning around, their eyes widened in surprise as the Alloy Gear RAY closest to them charged forward with a sudden burst of speed and jumped into the air.

Time seemed to momentarily slow as the goddesses tracked the enormous metal beast as it sailed over their very heads. With a resounding crash that demolished two entire skyscrapers, the Alloy Gear landed from its brief flight and swiftly turned towards its stunned targets. With a loud roar, it swung its right wing towards them which opened up to reveal a giant, super-heated blade. Vert quickly reacted to the danger and flew out of the way but Noire's slower speed resulted in her taking a direct hit from the glowing red sword.

"NOIRE!"

Vert's cry was drowned out by the crackling of energy as the giant sword and Noire's outer shield of share energy briefly locked in place. Physics eventually decided the outcome of the clash however as the sheer momentum and mass behind the Alloy Gear's strike allowed it to beat out the goddess's defense. With a sound like breaking glass, Noire's aura of share energy shattered as she was sent hurtling through the air from the recoil. As Vert could only watch in shock and horror, her friend's battered form smashed through three separate buildings before finally coming to a halt as she crash-landed into a small temple. The entire structure immediately collapsed from the impact as it buried the no doubt seriously injured goddess in a mountain of rubble.

"Ah..."

Too shocked to say anything, Vert flew down towards where her friend had landed with no regard for the three Alloy Gears. Luckily for her, the robots paid her no mind as they moved forward to surround the collapsed building with all their weapons primed and ready. Once they fully encircled the ruins however, they simply waited around like a trio of cats toying with their prey.

"Noire? Noire, where are you?!"

Landing within the massive field of debris, Vert looked around desperately for any hint of her fallen friend. Her worry continued to grow until a large mound of plaster and concrete several meters away suddenly shifted to reveal a familiar black-gloved hand. Without wasting a second, Vert quickly ran over to help.

A few seconds later, Noire was fully freed from the rubble trapping her as she crouched down onto the ground with her one good arm while breathing in short, ragged gasps. The three Alloy Gears watching all of this soundlessly inched closer, causing the last rays of the setting sun to cast an ominous shadow over their prey. Neither goddess paid them any attention though as they were too focused on each other. Or at least, Vert was to Noire.

"Noire?" she asked worriedly. "Are you... are you okay?"

In hindsight, this was a rather pointless question as Vert could tell at a glance that her fellow CPU was most definitely not okay. Though she still managed to maintain her HDD form, Noire was hurt far more severely than Vert had ever seen her. Numerous cuts and bruises were seen across her tattered suit as her right arm hung limply at her side as if broken. A nasty cut ran across her left brow as blood ran freely from her wound down to her face. And judging from her breathing, it was likely that a couple of her ribs had been broken as well.

Noire did not answer Vert as she kept disturbingly silent with her eyes lowered towards the ground. After a few more seconds of silence, Vert's common sense finally caught back up to her as she quickly tried to pull out her spare healing items for her friend. Her actions were interrupted however when Noire suddenly let out a faint, barely audible, noise that sounded oddly like... a laugh.

"Heh... Heh heh... You know... I've had a real shitty couple of days so far," the battered goddess whispered out, sounding far too calm given her situation. As Vert looked at her in concern, Noire continued speaking as if talking to herself. "First my house was invaded by a stupid freeloader. Then an annoying little brat came over and caused my fans to riot. After that, I had to spend the next few days living inside an abandoned factory that didn't even have a proper shower. Oh, and let's not forget about my crazy Yandere friend who decided to go completely nuts during all of this and took over said fans as well."

"Um... Noire? You're starting to scare me a little..."

The white-haired goddess paid her no mind as she continued with her monologue.

"And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, today happens." The injured goddess clenched her working hand as her left eye gave a visible twitch. "My plan to take back my Basilicom utterly failed. I had to be rescued by that accursed blond brat of all people. I was brainwashed into putting on my cosplay outfit and making a complete fool of myself. I was forced to risk my entire nation on a plan that even Neptune would've considered stupid. I was suplexed by a little girl that was half my height. My snacks were stolen by the blond brat. I was forced to climb up an endless amount of stairs just to fetch my partner like some kind of errand girl. I was grabbed by my fans in places I don't want to think about. My hand was frozen by the same stupid kid that suplexed me. And, of course, I was teased endlessly throughout all this by everyone, especially the blond brat and his idiot of a sister." Vert nervously took a step back at this.

"To top it all off," Noire concluded, her voice still maintaining that same frightening calmness from before, "I was smacked aside like a fucking baseball by the very machines that I ordered to be built."

Noire slowly took in a deep breath as the temperature around her seemed to drop by a good hundred degrees.

"But you know what?" she said, shakily rising to her feet. Even the Alloy Gears seemed slightly perturbed by this unexpected turn of events as they backed up a step. "Even with this entire _shit-fest_ that I've been forced to go through, there's still at least _one_ good thing that came from having this many crazy fans obsessed over me."

Noire raised herself to her full height as she slowly looked up at the Alloy Gears with her blood-streaked face.

"I have a _fuck-ton of shares_."

With a smile that could have made the Lord of the Underworld cower in terror, Noire summoned her share crystal to her working hand as a familiar HUD display appeared in front of her.

"Next Form, activate!"

The entire world seemed to explode into a flash of white as an unbelievable amount of shares responded to Noire's command. Vert was still trying to recover her eyesight when she was blasted aside by something, or rather someone, as they rocketed upwards with enough force to create a sonic boom.

"EAT THIS!"

The lead Alloy Gear RAY had no time to react as a bluish-black blur practically teleported up to its face and straight-up _punched_ it in its lower jaw. The skyscraper-sized robot seemed to instantaneously vanish from the ground as the vicious uppercut sent it soaring into the air before its entire form disappeared into the clouds with a sad twinkle.

As Vert and the remaining two Alloy Gears recovered just in time to see the giant robot fly off into the upper atmosphere, the black-armored figure turned to her remaining targets with the same feral grin as before.

"Who's next?" Noire asked, all of her wounds magically healed as she stood proudly in her shining Next Black form.

The two Alloy Gears briefly glanced at each other before leaping back several hundred meters to put some distance between themselves and the new threat. If they had not been programmed to target Noire at all costs, they would have probably high-tailed it out of there like any other sane being. Unfortunately, they were constrained by the limits of their coding as they foolishly let out a roar and began firing missiles again at the super-powered goddess.

Meanwhile, Vert quickly flew off to the rooftop of a distant skyscraper to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. Having spent a lot of time with Gamindustri's resident rage demon, Vert knew all too well the signs of someone who had been pushed far past their mental tipping point and wanted to keep as far away from the carnage as possible. Landing on her (hopefully) safe vantage point, Vert turned off her HDD and settled in to watch the inevitable slaughter.

"AHAHAHAHA! IS THAT REALLY THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!"

With a manic gleam in her glowing eyes, Noire used her upgraded energy sword to effortlessly slice through the cruise missiles that the Alloy Gears shot at her. Apparently, all concern for collateral damage had completely flown her mind as she weaved through the tall buildings without any care for the stray missiles that blew up the city around her.

Realizing that their projectiles were not even slowing down their target, the RAY on the right opened its mouth and fired off its plasma cannon. With something that sounded suspiciously like a cheer, Noire barrel-rolled past the deadly laser and continued to close the distance between them. Moving quickly, the other RAY unit unveiled the heat blade in its right wing and swung it down towards the rapidly approaching goddess.

"NOT THIS TIME!"

Noire swung her sword up in the blink of an eye to meet the colossal weapon. A deafening clang echoed out as the two vastly different sized blades clashed against each other. Unlike last time, however, Noire's new strength allowed her to screw the rules of physics themselves as she pushed back the giant blade with a loud yell. The Alloy Gear momentarily stumbled from having its sword bounced back as it quickly tried to regain its balance. Noire never gave it the chance as she flew in like a freight train and kicked the unbalanced robot directly in the chest. With a surprised-sounding screech, the giant robot flew backwards, crashing through a countless number of buildings before its heavily damaged body crumpled into a heap several miles away.

"...It's like one of my Lowee animes," Vert whispered out, her mouth wide open as she watched the over-the-top spectacle.

The action was not finished yet though as the RAY next to Noire gave a furious roar before unleashing its own heat blade against her.

Moving so fast that even Vert had a hard time tracking her, Noire flew in and sliced off the entire wing with a single slash. Before the robot could even fully process that it was now missing a limb, the vengeful goddess put away her sword and flew down to grab the dismembered wing. Carrying the building-sized weapon with absolute ease, Noire swung the giant wing-blade towards its original owner. The slash took out the RAY's missile-carrying appendage as the heat blade easily cut through the dense metal like butter. As the giant robot staggered from suddenly losing both its front limbs, Noire swung her gigantic sword again, this time at its unguarded main body. In a scene straight out of a video game, the giant blade swung down and vertically bisected the entire Alloy Gear. Casually tossing aside her borrowed weapon, Noire turned away from her defeated foe as the two halves of the robot slowly slid apart before exploding dramatically behind her.

"Tch. Didn't even put up a good fight," Noire complained, dusting off her hands with an annoyed look.

Far away on a distant rooftop, Vert just continued to watch with an open mouth.

As Noire started to brush the dust from her armor as well, a massive laser beam suddenly engulfed her entire being. Just as Vert was about to express her shock, the glowing orange plasma faded away to reveal the completely unscathed form of the Lastation CPU. With an annoyed huff, Noire turned around to face the Alloy Gear that she had previously kicked away.

Even with the sun fully set by this point, it was still easy to spot the giant robot as the lights from the remaining buildings illuminated its heavily dented metal form. It's red eye-sensors seemed to glow even brighter than before as it let loose an angry roar at the transformed goddess. Moving at a speed that belied its bulk, the lone RAY model charged forward like a bull.

Noire just took in the rampaging mass of metal and death with an amused look.

"Heh. Guess I might be able to properly vent some stress after all."

That was all the warning the Alloy Gear got before a massive force smashed itself directly into its face. The RAY tumbled head over heels several times before it could fully right itself and register the fact that the CPU had just punched it in its face. Shaking its massive head, the robot quickly looked around to locate the goddess before a voice suddenly shouted out from above.

"Here! I got you a little present!"

Though the robot did not have the chance to see it, Vert managed to witness the terrifying sight of Noire lifting up a toppled, twenty-story tall office building and holding the entire thing over her head. What the Alloy Gear did manage to see, however, was Noire launching the skyscraper directly towards it like some kind of insanely over-sized javelin.

The Alloy Gear desperately tried to jump away but even its impressive mobility proved to be inadequate to dodge the massive projectile. A loud robotic screech rang out into the night sky as the building collided with its intended target. Even from Vert's position, the sound of several tons of metal and glass crashing into the giant metal object could be heard as the battlefield erupted into a large cloud of debris.

Noire, however, did not simply presume her opponent was defeated like some brainless Shonen protagonist as she promptly flew into the dust cloud to properly finish the job.

All that could be heard for the next several minutes were the sounds of an energy sword being swung around as well as several more ear-piercing screeches. The violent noises eventually came to a rather abrupt end though as an unsettling silence fell over the ruins of the devastated city.

Without any warning, the giant dust cloud suddenly parted as the decapitated metal head of the Alloy Gear RAY went sailing into the air before exploding into an impressive fireworks display. Noire flew back up into visibility soon afterwards as the dust cloud finally cleared to reveal a sparking mass of mutilated metal below her.

"Alright. I think it's about time our final contender came back down," Noire stated, her sword held threateningly in her hand.

With rather impeccable timing, an enormous roar shook the skies as Vert saw something that made her wonder if she was simply having a bad fever dream.

Wreathed in flames from reentering the planet's atmosphere, the Alloy Gear that Noire had sent skyward earlier was... well, not exactly flying but most definitely falling with style. With its massive wings spread out as it descended from the heavens, the flaming behemoth looked like something straight out of a picture from the end times.

Once again though, Noire simply looked more amused than anything. With a confident smirk, she looked up at the giant robot that seemed quite intent on smashing into the ground and annihilating the entire city with it.

"Diagonal Blade Dance."

Four blazing swords colored in red, green, blue, and purple appeared around her as she simultaneously flew up to confront her final adversary.

With a roar, the Alloy Gear opened up its left wing to unleash a salvo of cruise missiles. Even with the immense air pressure and heat around it, the high-tech projectiles still managed to fire properly as they made their way down towards the rising goddess.

Noire simply waved her hand in response as her four energy swords shot forward at blinding speeds. Leaving a trail of their respective colors behind, the swords began to crisscross their way through the air as they cut the rain of missiles to shreds. Realizing the approaching danger, the Alloy Gear opened its mouth to unleash its plasma cannon.

It never got the chance.

With a grand sweep of her left arm, Noire sent the four swords directly at the robot. In a flurry of vibrant colors, the energy blades effortlessly sliced their way across the entirety of the Alloy Gear a countless number of times. Though the mechanical beast was technically already destroyed by this point, the Next Gen Goddess did not stop there as she summoned a large glyph beneath her feet. Using it as a launching pad, she rocketed upwards as her four swords delivered their last few slashes and dissipated in a perfect cross formation. Moving in to deliver the finishing blow herself, she activated her wing's thrusters causing a massive burst of energy to explode below her as she shot towards the heavens like a blazing comet.

"The final strike!"

Looking like a bluish streak of light, Noire cleaved her way completely through the center of the Alloy Gear's body. There was a momentary pause before a massive shockwave of blue share energy appeared at the point of impact before seeming to collapse in on itself. Then, in a fitting finale, the condensed ball of energy exploded back outwards as the enormous explosion lit up the night sky like a second sun.

As the city was greeted by an early sunrise, Vert stood on top of her rooftop with her mind continuing to reel from the whole experience. In her daze, she hardly noticed when Noire eventually flew back down from the sky. Whether it was intentional or some lucky coincidence, the twin-tailed goddess landed lithely on the same rooftop as Vert as her transformation finally fizzled out from her usage of her Next EXE Drive.

As she turned back into her human form, Noire haughtily flicked her twin-tail at the fading blue explosion in the background.

"Hmph! Don't fuck with this goddess!"

And with that she collapsed face-first onto the ground in exhaustion.

* * *

Miles away at the distant broadcast tower, the fighting had momentarily ground to a halt as both the fans and soldiers simply stopped to stare at the insane sky battle between the Alloy Gear and Noire instead. As the Tsundere goddess proceeded to create a miniature sun in the sky above, Sync tapped his pink-hatted associate on the shoulder with a surprisingly nervous look on his face.

"Ram?"

"Uh huh?"

"I don't think we should piss off Noire anymore today."

The younger twin fearfully nodded her head in agreement.


	13. Legacy of the Tsun (Pt 2)

**Ch 13: Legacy of the Tsun (Pt 2)**

It had not taken long before K-Sha apparently got over her shock of the Alloy Gears' spectacular defeat. Though she had yet to directly show her face, her fury was all too clear to see as the fans refocused their assault on the final stronghold with a burning rage gleaming from their golden eyes.

Luckily, the defenders had a far superior position in the engagement. Seeing as how the broadcast tower was one of the city's major buildings, it was protected by an enormous metal wall that surrounded its entire courtyard. The only entrances leading inside were a trio of gated checkpoints connected to the city's main roads. This heavily limited the fans' approach as they either had to go through the heavily-defended chokepoint or attempt to climb up the smooth metal wall. Though several of them did manage to get over by climbing on top of each other, the defenders were always quick to shoot them down before they could establish a foothold. And as for the rest that tried to squeeze in through the battered metal fences at the gate, a rather colorful array of super-powered beings waited to give them a cold welcome.

"Ice Coffin!"

The latest batch of fans that had slipped past the western barricade made it no further than ten steps before finding themselves frozen inside a giant icicle. Lowering her glowing staff, Rom gave a satisfied nod at her handiwork.

"Watch your left!" a nearby soldier with a taser gun shouted. "They're trying to climb over the walls again!"

"I got this!"

With an enthusiastic battle cry, Ram ran towards the invading fans with her own staff held high.

"Ice Hammer!"

A giant mass of ice formed at the end of her weapon as she jumped to the top of the wall in a single impressive leap. Ignoring the stunned looks that the fans gave her, Ram swung about her weapon with a ferocity that would have made Blanc proud. In a matter of seconds, all of the wall-climbing fans were either sent hurtling back down or simply smacked unconscious by the rampaging girl.

"Ram! Behind you!"

Ram quickly turned around at her sister's warning to find a mass of poster tubes flying straight towards her. Acting quickly, she swung her staff-turned-hammer down towards the surface of the wall she was standing on. A blast of potent ice magic fired from her weapon as a large ice barrier formed before her. As the projectiles bounced harmlessly off the ice wall, Ram took the opportunity to jump back down to her allies.

"Heh heh. Piece of cake," the younger twin bragged, straightening out her hat as she joined back up with her sister.

Rom gave her a quick smile before turning to the nearby soldier in charge of the radio.

"How are the rest of our defenses?"

The soldier spent a couple of seconds checking in with the other outpost leaders before turning to the young tactician with an answer.

"All entrances are still secure," he reported with obvious relief. "The southern entrance is facing a larger number of fans than before but C-Sha says she's got it covered. As for the northern sector, the Hunters report that the area is still barely occupied. It seems K-Sha has yet to properly redeploy her main forces there after moving them away in preparation for the Alloy Gears."

Rom took in all of this information with a short nod. "That's good to hear," she replied, her voice sounding much more confident than usual. "Tell the squad leader at the north-western wall to send a few of her people over to reinforce our position. Make sure they keep enough forces on standby though in case of a surprise attack. I think K-Sha's too angry right now to come up with anything other than a direct frontal attack but I want us to be prepared just in case."

The soldier responded with a sharp salute. "Yes, ma'am!"

As he busied himself with relaying the order, Ram turned to her sister with a rather impressed look.

"Wow, Rom! You sounded really cool there! You were just like that awesome tactician girl from the last _Advance Battles_ game!"

Rom immediately returned to her shy demeanor as she gave a deep blush at the compliment. "It... It's nothing _that_ impressive. I just find it easy to deal with all this strategy stuff, that's all."

Ram seemed to think otherwise as she continued to praise her older twin with a proud smile. This continued on for a few more minutes (in-between them freezing a couple more fans) before the energetic young girl suddenly paused to give a worried frown.

"What's taking Sync so long? Do you think the Tsu- I mean, Noire did something to him?"

Rom and Ram both gave a slight shiver as they remembered how the Lastation CPU had obviously snapped. It was clear Sync had shared their fear of the violent goddess as well but he had still left to bring her and Vert back to base anyways.

"I hope not," Rom said, her expression quickly changing into worry as well. "I don't think even big bro could survive if Miss Noire decided to blow him up like that poor Alloy Gear."

"No kidding," Ram agreed. "I never thought I'd see someone with bigger anger problems than Blanc."

"...What did you just say?"

Ram gave a terrified 'Meep!' as a familiar, irritated voice suddenly spoke up from behind her. Turning around, the twins found a green portal that was floating perpendicular to the ground for once rather than facing downwards. Their attention, however, was mostly focused on the scowling twin-tailed goddess who had apparently just stepped out of said portal with her arms crossed.

"Ah... N... N... Nothing!" Ram squeaked out. "W... We were just talking about... umm... how cool twin-tails are! Yeah! T... Twin-tails are the coolest hairstyle ever! R...Right, Rom?"

Noire ignored the nervous nod that the older twin gave as she instead raised a threatening eyebrow at the pink-hatted girl. Before Ram could flee in terror, two familiar blonds suddenly stepped through the portal before it promptly closed shut behind them.

"I must admit, this is a rather pleasant surprise," Vert remarked, obviously referring to the fact they had not ended up glomping the ground again. "Didn't you state that you couldn't properly control your teleportation powers from this far away?"

Sync did not immediately answer as he suddenly stumbled forward a bit before managing to steady himself.

"I'm alright," he said, waving off Rom and Ram as they ran forward to help. Vert also put on a strangely concerned expression though she did not make any outward moves to aid him. Noire just gave him a glare. "I simply had to use a lot more energy than normal to make sure our Tsu- er... Noire didn't end up becoming a landing cushion again."

Ram was pretty sure she saw smoke starting to come out of Sync's coat as Noire intensified her glare. Deciding to distract the angry goddess before she incinerated her manservant, Ram repeated the question that she had voiced earlier.

"So what took you so long to get here anyways?"

Sync turned to her with a smile back on his face while Rom was busy preparing some kind of healing spell next to him.

"Noire was out of it for quite a bit even after we used a Life Fragment on her," he explained. "Sis wanted to just carry her with us but I didn't want to risk having her wake up mid-transport and moving about in surprise. Knowing her luck, Noire would have probably ended up jolting out of the warp field right as we teleported and trapped herself in some kind of spatial limbo for all of eternity. I kind of figured she wouldn't like having that happen to her so we waited around for her to get back up."

The anger seemed to momentarily drain out of the Lastation CPU's face as she stared at the boy with a rather shocked look.

"You can do that? Drop people into some perpetual limbo, I mean?"

Sync replied with a small shrug. "Normally? No. With your reality-bending powers of having terrible things happen to you? Yes." Remembering the CPU's current mental state and what she had just done to the Alloy Gears though, he quickly tried to amend his statement. "Ahem. N... Not that I'm trying to insult you or anything. It's just that... it's rather kind of impressive that someone's luck stat could be that low. In fact, I think you might have one of the lowest luck stat of anyone in recorded... yeah, I think I'm just going to stop talking now."

"Good," Noire growled, her sword suddenly inches away from his face.

Thankfully, the tense situation was quickly resolved as Rom used her Refreshments spell on the party. The warm, fuzzy feeling of having their energy restored managed to calm even the angry Tsundere as she put away her sword with a huff.

"Thanks," Sync said to Rom, giving her a grateful smile for both restoring his energy as well as most likely saving his life.

Rom just gave a bashful smile in return while Vert seethed with jealousy in the back as per usual.

"So..." Sync eventually let out, trying his best to avoid Noire's death glare. "Anything interesting happen here while we were gone?"

Rom quickly began to fill in the new arrivals on the situation. Meanwhile, the soldiers behind them had been dutiful enough to not be distracted by the sudden appearance of their (terrifying) goddess as they continued to keep the fans at bay. Ram also lent them a hand by occasionally freezing a few fans that wandered too close.

"Heh. Looks like our tactician's really pulling us through," Sync commented once Rom's recap had come to a end. After giving the blushing girl another smile, he turned (rather reluctantly) to face Noire.

"By the way, shouldn't we be connected to those satellites by now? Because I'm pretty sure it's been way past thirty minutes."

Luckily, the twin-tailed goddess did not maul Sync for daring to speak to her as she instead brought out her phone and activated its holographic communications display.

"Status report," Noire curtly said as soon as the line connected.

The head technician from before appeared on the screen as he looked back at his boss with a stressed look.

"Ah. Apologies for the lack of updates, Lady Black Heart," he quickly replied. "We were rather busy dealing with an... odd delay."

"Go on," Noire said, arching an eyebrow at the man.

The technician definitely heard the dangerous edge in the CPU's voice as he began to sweat nervously.

"Erm... T... There was a sudden obstruction between our relays' signal and the satellites," he stuttered out. "W... When we used our scanners to identify the supposed space debris, we found that the object was actually a... um... well, a giant Nepgeardam."

"Huh," Sync suddenly remarked, causing everyone to turn to him. "So that's where the rogue Nepgeardam ended up running off to." Seeing everyone's confused looks, he clarified himself. "Nepgear created a giant Nepgeardam on the day that I first arrived at sis's Basilicom. It apparently had a faulty AI program and wound up rampaging across Planeptune for a couple of days. Nepgear told me she and Neptune blew it up but never found the remains. Apparently, it must have used the explosion to hide its escape into space and was simply repairing itself up there the whole time."

There was a brief silence before the technician broke it with a cough. "Ahem. Right. Anyways... we were busy trying to figure out a way to circumvent our signal around the giant robot. Luckily, the problem ended up solving itself a couple minutes ago when the Nepgeardam seemed to realize it was being watched and flew off deeper into space."

"Any ideas where it was headed off to?" Sync asked.

The technician gave a shrug. "Can't be sure. Though based on its trajectory it might have been headed towards the Maryo Galaxy."

"Fascinating," Noire interrupted with a scowl. "Now if you don't mind, just how much longer is it going to take to get that link fully established?"

"Oh, right," the technician said, fumbling about with the computer on his side for a bit. "I would say... roughly fifteen minutes at most. I suggest sending up Ms. Ram and Rom right now to prepare for the emergency broadcast."

"Hey! That's _Lady_ Ram and Rom to you, buster!" the younger twin shouted.

Noire ended the call before the technician could say anything as she turned her annoyed gaze towards the twins.

"Shut up and get moving," she told the suddenly terrified-looking girls. "I want this entire idiotic mess dealt with as soon as possible so that I can go home and get some proper sleep."

The two gave a quick nod to the angry goddess as they moved towards the tower's entrance. Before they got more than a couple steps though, Noire stopped them in their tracks by speaking up again.

"And if either of you try to use your brainwashing powers to get the fans to do anything stupid..."

She left the unspoken threat hanging in the air as the twins found themselves fearfully gazing up to where the last Alloy Gear had violently exploded. Nodding so hard that it looked like their heads were going to fall off, the two quickly high-tailed it out of there.

"Oh, make sure you refer to me as the Waifu Thief if you need to talk about me!" Sync called out to their retreating forms. "I'm pretty sure that's the only name the fans have to identify me!"

Rom turned to give him a quick nod before she and Ram disappeared around the corner of the building.

* * *

There was a brief silence following the twin's departure before Sync turned to Noire with a wary gaze.

"So... are you still feeling all murderous and psychopathic or are you finally back to your usual Tsu- er... normal self?"

Noire did not get the chance to pull her sword on him again as the radio operator from before ran up to them with an urgent look.

"Lady Black Heart! Both the Hunters and C-Sha just reported a change in enemy movement! Both the northern and southern fan forces have suddenly pulled away from the main gates!"

"What?" Noire asked, her business-like demeanor quickly returning as she turned to her soldier. "Are the fans retreating?"

The operator shook his head. "It doesn't seem like it. They've simply moved outside the range of our gunners and are holding position for the time being."

Both Noire and Sync looked over to the nearby western gate only to find that the fans there were still continuing their attack.

"K-Sha's probably preparing for her final move," Sync noted, actually sounding a bit serious for once. "I can sense a massive amount of movement out there but it's kind of hard to figure out what exactly is... wait. There's definitely a large number of fans converging into this area. I think she's planning to brute-force her way through this checkpoint and then hit the southern entrance during the confusion."

"What about the northern side?" Noire asked him, her feud with the boy momentarily forgotten.

"Hm... Based on their movements, it looks like K-Sha's given up on that area. The remaining fans are probably just there to keep watch and ensure that we don't try to escape."

Noire contemplated this with a deep scowl before turning to the radio operator.

"Tell C-Sha to prepare for an imminent attack on her position! As for the Hunters, tell them to bring their airship over here immediately! We'll need their air support to hold our position against this attack!"

As her soldier moved away to convey her order, Noire pulled out her stun baton from her inventory once more.

"Ugh. I just can't catch a break, can I?" she muttered irritably.

"Are you sure you're fit to fight?" Vert asked, looking at her friend in concern.

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm-"

The twin-tailed goddess immediately fell flat on her face again as her legs buckled beneath her as she tried to move forward. Even with her energy restored by Rom's spell, her body was clearly still worn out from her previous battle.

"Ow..."

With a sigh, Vert moved over and helped her fellow CPU up. Stifling a laugh, Sync also walked over while procuring a can of Nep Bull from his inventory.

"Here," he told Noire, handing the flustered-looking goddess the energy drink.

The twin-tailed CPU hesitated a bit before eventually accepting the item with a suspicious glare. Not taking her eyes off him the whole time, she opened the can and downed the whole thing in one go. To her surprise, there was nothing strange laced with the drink as she immediately felt some of her stamina return.

"Um.. . by the way," the boy suddenly said, rubbing the back of his head in an oddly embarrassed manner, "there's something I need to tell you before we get into this next fight." Noire continued to glare at him with clear distrust as he continued on in a slightly more serious tone than normal. "I know I never told you this outright but... I'm sorry. I really am sorry about causing you so much trouble. I never actually planned for my prank to get this out of control but I guess that's kind of a moot point now. I know it's not enough to make up for it all but just know that I'm prepared to play my part in cleaning up this entire mess."

It was a good thing Noire had finished her drink or she might have spit it back up in surprise. Her astonishment did not last for very long, however, as her suspicion quickly returned.

"Okay, what are you up to?" she asked, tossing away the empty can into a nearby bin. "There's no way you're not planning something stupid again. And what the hell was up with that last part? You sounded like someone who was about to head off into their final battle or something."

Though Noire did not notice it, Vert's face suddenly drained of color at the remark as she looked at the boy with wide eyes.

Before Sync could respond, the Lowee airship came into view as it flew around the tower and approached the western gate. The boy paused to give the ship's crew a small wave before turning back to Noire with his carefree demeanor already settled back into place.

"What? Isn't a guy allowed to be serious for once? Even I-"

Sync suddenly stopped mid-sentence as he turned back to the airship with a sharp look. Before either goddess could inquire about this, he teleported away in a literal flash.

"What-"

Noire never got the chance to finish her question as the airship suddenly exploded. Both the goddesses and the soldiers looked up in shock as another Stinger missile flew up from the fan crowd outside and reduced the flaming wreckage into complete dust.

At the same moment, a sudden flash of green lighted up the space next to the two stunned CPUs. Immediately turning their heads around, Noire and Vert managed to see Sync and the four Hunters tumbling forward onto the ground. Though they all looked understandably shaken, none of them seemed to be seriously injured from the blast.

"She's here earlier than I thought," Sync panted out, quickly picking himself back up as he looked towards the gate.

Before anyone could react, a massive salvo of missiles suddenly slammed into the checkpoint as the gate met the same fate as the airship. A large portion of the wall was also annihilated in the blast as a large hole opened up in the defenses. While the nearby soldiers were sent flying back from the sudden explosion, the fans seemed completely unaffected by it all as the one who launched the missiles obviously had their friendly fire turned off.

With an echoing battle cry, the fans spilled into the courtyard while brutally beating down all of the guards that were still standing. In the blink of an eye, Noire, Vert, Sync and the Hunters found themselves trapped between the horde of fans and the side of the broadcast tower. The heroes quickly dropped into their respective combat stances when the Swarm suddenly stopped their menacing advance towards them. As the group watched warily, the fans directly in front of them shifted to the sides to create a perfect walkway between them.

"Hmhm.. It looks like the main guests are already here. How thoughtful. You've saved me the trouble of having to hunt you down one by one."

All of the heroes tensed as the Queen of the Swarm finally made her appearance. Dressed in her standard red school uniform, the golden-eyed girl casually walked down the rows of fans with a large missile launcher in her hand.

"K-Sha," Noire growled out, tightening her grip on her stun baton.

The Yandere leader regarded her 'lover' with a cold look as she finally came to a stop in front of her minions. As the fans moved to close the gap between them, K-Sha replaced her missile launcher with her usual Uzi before aiming the gun at her enemies.

"Noire," she acknowledged in a falsely sweet tone. "I have to say, I'm really, _really_ disappointed in you. Not only have you been ignoring all of my great ideas to improve Lastation lately, you also had the gall to go behind my back and get married without my permission."

Noire made a slight choking noise to this before quickly recovering.

"Okay, first of all," she angrily countered, "putting up pachinko parlors all over my nation is -not- a great idea! Seriously, what's with you're sudden obsession with those gambling machines? And secondly, I did NOT get married to anyone!"

"Stop lying," K-Sha snarled, pointing her gun directly at Noire's head. "We've all seen the broadcast. Why would you agree to personally go all the way to a news station if your engagement story wasn't real?"

Noire's left eye began twitching again as she turned her gaze towards a sheepishly smiling Sync.

"Heh heh," he let out as everyone else turned to look at him. "That... was actually my fault. I kinda dragged her to-."

K-Sha did not let him finish as she turned her gun towards him and opened fire without warning. Rather than teleporting away as expected however, he simply stayed in place with a growing frown as the thankfully weak spray of bullets bounced off his aura of share energy.

"This is troublesome," he whispered out, obviously intending for only his allies to hear. "All of her projectiles are covered in her Gold Third energy. It's interfering with my spatial powers and is preventing me from redirecting them like I normally do."

"Then those missiles from earlier...?" the Hunter next to him asked.

Sync gave a small nod. "I thought I simply messed up my control there but this attack proves that I can't affect her or any of her projectiles with my powers." A rather dry grin appeared on his face. "Tch. There goes my plan to continuously teleport her to the edge of the city to annoy her."

"Are you done?" K-Sha asked, her coldness from before replaced with a look of pure hatred. "Because I want your full attention when I tear you limb from limb for stealing my darling Noire!"

Sync just gave a laugh at the threat. "Sheesh, what is it with you Yanderes and tearing off other people's limbs?" he asked jokingly. "I mean, Chika threatens to do the same thing to me every other day as well."

As he said this, he took a step forward causing the rest of his group to look at him in confusion.

"I'll keep K-Sha busy," he quietly told his surprised allies. "The rest of you should focus on keeping the fans off of Noire. I would teleport all of you to somewhere safe but I don't want to risk K-Sha sending the Swarm into the tower. We only need to hold out for a few more minutes before the broadcast and this is the best way to keep the main force occupied." Hearing Noire about to loudly protest, he turned around and gave her a confident smile. "Trust me. I'll make sure that we all make it out of this alive. Besides, I already told you. It's time I played my part in this as well."

Seeing the CPU at a loss for words, he gave a satisfied smile before beginning to turn away. However, he was suddenly stopped when an unexpected voice spoke up.

"Sync..."

The boy turned to his sister with a confused look as she looked at him with a conflicted expression. After a drawn-out second, she gave a large sigh and spoke up in a barely audible whisper.

"...don't die."

Sync responded to this with a full-blown laugh causing Vert to flush red with embarrassment.

"W...What?" she cried out, her indignant tone coming across as more of a whine. "I'm being serious! I don't want you to get yourself killed!"

It took a few seconds before Sync managed to recover from his laughing fit.

"Heh. Ah, sis. I know I said this is your story and not mine but I'm not planning to exit the stage just yet." Still chuckling a bit, he turned around to fully face the murderous Yandere in front of him. "After all, there's a lot more people that I still need to annoy."

"Cute," K-Sha sarcastically remarked. "I'll write that on your epitaph."

Not giving her enemy a chance to waste anymore time, the Yandere Queen gave a loud yell as she activated her latent powers. A military commander's hat immediately appeared over her head as a black eye-patch appeared to cover her left eye as well. At the same time, a large weapons module resembling an older Alloy Gear unit appeared out of thin air before affixing itself to her back. With a grim smile, K-Sha completed her transformation by sweeping both her arms to her sides with theatrical flourish as two golden Uzis appeared in her hands.

"K-Sha, Gold Third transformation complete," she mechanically intoned, her body continuing to glow with a massive amount of excess energy.

All eyes fell on Sync as they waited for his response. To their surprise, however, he simply gave the crowd a casual shrug.

"Sorry to break it to everyone but I don't exactly have a cool transformation," he explained, much to the disappointment of Vert and Noire who had been expecting to see his HDD form.

"On the other hand," he went on, "I guess this is as good a time as any to show off my main weapon."

Without any further fanfare, he reached over to roll up his coat's right sleeve.

After having it completely leave her mind after their first meeting, Vert suddenly realized that she was finally finding out what the cylindrical bulge underneath his sleeve actually was. Peering forward with curiosity, she and everyone else watching soon found their expressions changing into confusion as they simply found some kind of high-tech metal armguard covering his forearm.

"Is that supposed to be some pathetic excuse for an arm-cannon?" K-Sha mocked. Having sparred plenty of times against C-Sha and her Mega Buster, she was hardly impressed by the puny weapon.

Sync just gave a small laugh as he finished rolling up his sleeve and got into a loose combat stance.

"Nah," he replied. "It's actually more of a... Psi-Blade."

A blazing green streak of energy suddenly ignited from the end of his arm unit as he said this. Extending out over his wrist and hand, the energy quickly stabilized into a half-meter long laser blade as he leveled it against his opponent.

"Though considering what it's made of," he continued, "I'd say its more fitting to call it a Share Blade."

K-Sha just raised her eyebrow at this as she slowly shifted into a combat stance herself.

The entire area became deathly silent as every single person present got ready for what was most likely the final battle of the entire war. The tension was practically tangible as both sides glared at each other, daring the other to make the first move.

Fittingly enough, Sync was the one to break the stillness as he widened his smile.

"Heh. Let's dance."

And with that, all hell broke loose.

* * *

"Kinestra Slash!"

A large swath of fans were blown away by Vert's charge as even more were sent flying from the following burst of magical wind energy. She did not stop to admire her handiwork though, as she continued to keep the fans off of her vulnerable teammate.

It was hard to tell how long the fight had been going on as all Vert could remember was beating back an endless sea of fans that rushed towards her. Next to her, the Hunters were actually holding their own fairly well as they effectively took down the fans with their stun batons, tranquilizer grenades, and smoke bombs. As it was, the massive smokescreens were actually what was keeping the battle somewhat even as it effectively blinded the distant fans and prevented them from simply rushing in at once and overwhelming their defenses.

As for Noire, she was doing her best to prevent herself from being surrounded. Thanks to her teammates' efforts, she only had to deal with a small handful of fans at a time as she easily managed to dispatch them even in her exhausted state.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!"

Not for the first time during the fight, K-Sha's frustrated yell echoed across the night sky.

Clearing the fans around her with a massive cyclone, Vert spared a quick glance at the duel above. Of course, considering the nature of the fight, calling it a duel might have been overstating it just a tad bit.

Keeping in line with his usual behavior, the boy's primary fighting style was clearly based around doing one thing: driving his opponent completely insane. Time and time again, he would pretend to be hit by a missile or a hailstorm of bullets only to reappear next to the berserk Yandere and slash her with his Share Blade. While the weapon was not strong enough to pierce through the Gold Third's energy shield, it did seem to at least sting her a bit as she gave a slight wince every time the blade connected. To make matters even more infuriating for her, all of her attempts to fly out of his range ended up in failure as he simply chained together his teleportations to climb through the air and make up for his lack of flight.

"ENOUGH!"

After being struck in her sides once again, K-Sha flew even higher into the sky before activating her weapon module's rail gun. With an enraged snarl, she unleashed a massive beam of plasma in the hopes of utterly vaporizing the source of her irritation.

Vert was fairly certain she saw Sync roll his eyes at this before simply teleporting himself away once again. Just like with every other attack during the fight, the laser flew in the opposite direction of the broadcast tower as it blew a gigantic crater in the city instead. While this earned another indignant cry from Noire, Vert simply gave a small sigh of relief. Thankfully, it seemed that K-Sha was far too angry to notice that the kid was deliberately keeping her faced away from the tower. And considering how the fight was going, it was highly unlikely she would calm down enough to ever figure it out.

"DAMN YOU!"

K-Sha's screech of frustration was cut short when a mass of brick-filled body pillows suddenly rained down on top of her. Seeing as how the boy could not redirect any of the Yandere Queen's projectiles, he opted to snatch away her minions' weapons as he used them against her instead.

Sadly for Vert, she was not able to watch what happened next as she had to focus back on the approaching fans. The feral scream that rent the sky, however, made it pretty clear that K-Sha had been either hit by the pillows or the boy's Share Blade once again.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but that brat's actually doing a good job for once," Noire begrudgingly admitted.

Though she did not notice it, Vert actually gave a small smile upon hearing this. She never got the chance to consider the disturbing fact that she was feeling something akin to pride for the boy however as another wave of fans mindlessly ran towards her.

As the fighting dragged on, it became increasingly clear that the boy's annoyance tactic was turning the tide of the battle in their favor. With K-Sha rapidly losing her sanity and control, the Swarm began to lose their cohesiveness as a result. More and more of the fans started to revert back into their feral state as they began to attack anything within their sights with reckless abandon. Soon enough, Vert and the Hunters only had to deal with the nearby fans that happened to catch sight of Noire as the rest of the Swarm began to slowly tear itself apart.

"I don't believe it!" the former pilot Hunter exclaimed, taking in the incredible sight of the enemy army destroying itself. "We might actually make it out of this alive!"

All of the other Hunters responded to this with a loud groan. When their unofficial leader gave them a confused look, the Hunter closest to him spoke up.

"You just had to go and set off that flag, didn't you?"

"What flag?"

His question was answered when K-Sha let out her loudest scream yet.

"TO HELL WITH YOU! ALL I NEED IS MY DARLING NOIRE!"

The unhinged Gold Third member suddenly turned away from her opponent as she began to dive straight towards Noire instead.

"Watch out!"

Without really thinking, Vert threw herself in front of her friend to protect her from the dive-bombing Yandere. Time seemed to temporarily halt in that moment as K-Sha flew down with a crazed look, Vert braced herself for the incoming impact, and Noire simply watched with growing horror.

Then the moment shattered as a blue-colored blur smashed into K-Sha's side and sent her crashing into one of the distant skyscrapers.

"Sorry I'm late," C-Sha announced as she landed, her own Gold Third form activated and glowing with energy. "I tried to get here as soon as I saw the explosions but the locals weren't being very cooperative."

Gravity reasserted itself over Vert as well as she fell into a heap from her unneeded body block. After quickly picking herself up and dusting off her dress, she looked towards their new arrival with a rather peeved look.

"Couldn't you have appeared a bit sooner?" she grumbled.

C-Sha gave a small laugh. "Careful there Vert. You're beginning to sound like Noire."

Before either goddess could shout an angry reply, K-Sha flew back to the battlefield as she looked down at her former leader with madness in her visible eye.

"C-Sha," she spat out. "I should have listened to B-Sha and eliminated you when I had the chance."

The buxom fighter looked up at her with a confused expression. "I don't remember B-Sha ever saying something like that." There was a brief pause before a figurative light bulb seemed to appear over her head. "Oh, wait! You're talking about the time we were playing Maryo Party, right? Man, you and B-Sha were really out for my blood then. It's too bad S-Sha sneaked a win while we were all busy fighting each other."

K-Sha responded by activating her weapon module's missile launcher.

"Die."

C-Sha just gave a small sigh to this before jumping into the air and kicking the warheads away from the tower with expert ease.

"It looks like I'll need to put you on some antipsychotics again," the Gold Third leader muttered as she landed gracefully, the missiles spiraling away before harmlessly exploding in the night sky.

K-Sha visibly shook with rage as she looked down at her scattered army. Her right eye glowed even brighter than before as she reasserted her will over her minions.

"Bring Noire to me at once!" she commanded. "Slaughter the rest!"

The fans immediately fell into ordered ranks again as they advanced upon the group as one.

"Where did that brat disappear to?" Noire complained, backing up with the rest of her team as the terrifying mob closed in on them.

A bright flash of green answered her as Sync appeared in front of them. Oddly enough, he was holding onto his N-Gear in his left hand. Looking closer, Vert also noticed that he was holding a strange swirling vortex of blue energy in his other hand. Unlike a certain famous ninja technique however, the blue orb looked more like some kind of miniature portal than an attack.

"Move!" he suddenly yelled, turning around to toss the vortex of energy in the direction of his group. Not surprisingly, Noire ended up being in the direct path of the throw as she gave a startled yelp and barely ducked under it in time.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" she cried out indignantly.

Sync did not bother to answer her as he instead kept his eyes on the blue vortex as it stopped to hover in the air just behind his allies.

"Keep it protected!" he said urgently, putting away his N-Gear before teleporting away towards K-Sha again without any further explanation.

Vert, Noire, C-Sha, and the Hunters all looked back at the slowly growing orb of blue energy with completely baffled looks. They did not get a chance to voice their confusion however as the first row of fans suddenly charged in.

"Take out the fans first, ask questions later!" Noire yelled out, turning back around towards her enemies. The rest of her teammates quickly faced the fans as well as they raised their respective weapons. With a shared battle cry, the group of heroes met the group of fans' head-on.

"Lacy Dance!"

"Rainy Ratnapura!"

"C-Buster!"

As the first wave broke like water before the onslaught of SP skills, Vert turned to Noire with a small grin.

"Seven hundred forty three," she said with a smug look.

Noire glanced back at her with an exasperated look.

"Are you seriously still keeping track of that?!"

"Of course," Vert replied. "You know as well as I do that I always play to win."

Noire offhandedly jabbed an approaching fan with her weapon while still glowering at Vert. "Oh, yeah? Well, too bad for you, I've already won that stupid contest seeing as how I'm the one who stopped those Alloy Gears!"

"That still only counts as three," Vert said with a smile.

Noire was just about to open her mouth to continue the banter when a loud psychotic laugh suddenly rang out across the courtyard. Looking towards the source, Vert saw something that nearly made her heart stop.

Hovering several hundred meters above the fan crowd, K-Sha triumphantly held the boy up by his neck with her right hand. Judging from his exhausted form, he had most likely closed in on the Yandere Queen to deliver another strike with his weapon before running out of energy to make his retreat. Whatever the case was, it was clear he was not going to last for much longer as K-Sha began to increase her grip on his throat.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! YES!" K-Sha crowed in twisted delight. "DIE! DIE YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT! THIS IS YOUR PUNISHMENT FOR TRYING TO STEAL NOIRE AWAY FROM ME!"

Even with the air being squeezed out of him, Sync continued to struggle desperately against his captor. However, his lack of strength coupled with the interference of having K-Sha's Gold Third energy so close to him made it impossible for him to teleport away. Before long, his Share Blade fizzled out completely as his movement became weaker and weaker.

With another psychotic laugh, K-Sha looked her victim directly in the eye with a sadistic grin.

"I'm going to enjoy feeling your pathetic neck finally snap. Hmhmhm... With you gone, nothing will stop me from being with my dear Noire forever and ever and-"

Her eyes suddenly widened in surprise as something impacted against her body. Unconsciously dropping the boy, she slowly looked down to find a green spear piercing just enough through her energy shield to draw blood from her side. Before she could process anything else, the spear suddenly exploded into a massive gale as she found herself being flung into the sky by the hurricane-force winds. With a final enraged scream, the crazed Yandere disappeared completely into the darkness above.

Meanwhile, Sync found himself falling through the sky with no one left holding him. His fall was short-lived however as a firm hand grabbed onto his left arm. Slowly looking up with bleary eyes, he was surprised to find Vert in her HDD form holding onto him. More surprising, however, was the fact that her normally serene expression was replaced with a fearsome look as she glared up to where K-Sha had been just moments before.

"I am -not- going to let you force me into a bad ending this early on," she growled out, much to the confusion of Sync.

After a long moment, her expression slowly softened as she looked down at the stunned boy with a concerned look.

"Are you okay?"

Sync just gave a short nod, obviously still shocked that she had been the one to save him. After a rather awkward moment between the two, he spoke up again in hoarse whisper.

"She's not going to be held up there for very long," he croaked, still managing to inject a bit of levity into his voice despite his current state. "We should probably group back up before she gets back."

With a nod, Vert lowered her other hand for him to grab onto. Carrying him below her with both arms, the CPU began her descent towards their understandably stunned group down below.

Luckily, none of the fans were in any state to stop them as they flew over the crowd. The sudden shock of losing their hive leader seemed to have completely shut down the fans for the moment as they simply stared forward in a blank daze. Of course, Vert was not so optimistic as to think they were in the clear just yet as the fans were sure to be reawakened as soon as K-Sha got back. With that in mind, she cast a barrage of wind spells as she flew by to knock down as many of the currently defenseless fans as she could.

When the two eventually landed onto the ground again, Noire was surprisingly the first one to walk up to the boy while the others just watched with their mouths still open. Before anyone could react though, the twin-tailed goddess raised her hand and brought a fist down onto his head.

"Stop trying to get yourself killed, you little brat!" she yelled out. "I already told you that _I'm_ the one who's going to be the one to kill you!"

Sync just rubbed his head with a sheepish smile while Noire turned away with a classic Tsundere huff. Knowing that this was simply her friend's way of expressing her relief, Vert passed off the violent greeting with a small laugh as she turned off her HDD.

"Now what?" one of the Hunters asked. "We've defeated the fan leader, right? Does that mean we've won?"

C-Sha shook her head. "I highly doubt K-Sha's out of this yet. If anything, I'd say all we did was to make her more angry."

"You're kidding!" the lead Hunter exclaimed. "Lady Vert's attack just now looked like the perfect climactic finisher!"

Noire gave a large sigh before speaking up.

"K-Sha's Gold Third energy is linked to Lastation's shares like mine," she explained. "That means that whatever powers I have, she has it as well. And all of you saw what I was capable of against those Alloy Gears earlier. As much as I hate to admit this, K-Sha's more or less invincible right now."

An ominous silence fell over the group for a brief moment before another Hunter spoke up.

"So you're saying she hasn't even used her full power yet?"

The Lastation CPU nodded. "More than likely she just doesn't know how to. But knowing her, she'll probably figure it all out through pure instinct."

"Also we're at the final stretch of our mission," Sync finally spoke up, his voice slowly starting to recover a bit. "It'd make sense for the final boss to unleash her final form now."

Noire rolled her eyes at the fourth-wall breaking but otherwise said nothing.

"Any chance you could use your Next-Form again?" Vert asked hopefully.

Her friend shook her head. "I used everything I had during the Alloy Gear fight. I don't think I can even activate my regular HDD right now."

Before the group could say anything else, a massive clap of thunder suddenly echoed from above. Looking up in surprise, the heroes saw a huge swell of storm clouds gathering around the city as lightning began to flash across the sky as well.

"...Gotta give her props for knowing how to make a dramatic re-entrance," Sync muttered.

K-Sha took this moment to slowly descend from the dark clouds gathered around her. As her glowing form came into view, Vert saw that the small wound she had inflicted was already gone as the only trace of her attack was a tiny tear in the red jacket. Her attention was quickly drawn elsewhere though as she saw the full visage of the Yandere Queen's ultimate form.

Fitting with Noire's explanation of their linked share energy and her general obsession with the CPU, K-Sha was wearing what was undeniably Noire's base processor units over her already existing armaments. The only thing she lacked was the black plug suit but other than that, she looked like a remarkable copy of the Lastation CPU in her HDD form.

"Heh," Sync suddenly let out, taking in the boss's final form with an amused smile. "A Yandere Queen cosplaying as a cosplay-obsessed CPU. How... appropriate."

Noire did not bother to yell at the kid as she was too busy watching K-Sha as she summoned an energy sword to her right hand. The weapon looked nearly identical to the one Noire used in her HDD form but its edge glowed with a golden light rather than its usual blue sheen. With her golden Uzi still in her left hand, the Yandere Queen swept both her weapons in a dramatic flourish.

The mass of fans below her suddenly came to life again as their eyes glowed brighter than ever before. Even the ones who had been knocked unconscious rose back up as K-Sha's newfound power roused them all back into her service. In a matter of seconds, the group once again found themselves completely surrounded as the entirety of the Swarm rose up against them.

"Well... we're fucked," the lead Hunter said, summing up their situation quite nicely.

Vert, Noire, C-Sha, and the Hunters all looked around with nervous gazes as the mass of fans and a super-powered Yandere closed in on them. However, their fearful reverie was quickly broken when Sync gave a soft laugh. As everyone around him gave him a baffled look, he shakily brought himself into a combat stance as he reactivated the Share Blade on his arm.

"Come on guys," he called out, still managing to sound cheerful despite his exhaustion. "We can take them."

Noire gave him an incredulous look. "Have you lost your mind?! There's no way we can take on these numbers in our current state! Especially not with K-Sha all powered up like that!"

Sync widened his smile as he gave her a backwards glance.

"That's why I called for back-up," he said, pointing behind them with his thumb.

The rest of the group turned around just in time to see a bright flash of light coming from the swirling blue vortex they had completely forgotten about until now. As they watched, the mass of energy seemed to collapse in on itself before a giant blue crystal suddenly warped in to take its place. Levitating in the air with a golden ring encircling the middle of its diamond-shaped structure, Vert immediately recognized the object as something she had once seen before in Nepgear's laboratory.

"Is that...?"

Sync gave a cheery nod. "Yup. A pylon."

Before anyone could even blink, three bright streaks of light appeared before the alien crystal as they quickly began to take form. In a few seconds, the warp-in reached its conclusion as a trio of very familiar figures slowly came into view of the stunned group.

"Hm. It seems we've arrived just in time," a cool, mature voice spoke out.

"Goodness," the person next to her exclaimed. "This is a lot more fans than I expected. Do you really think we can defeat them all, sis?"

"Don't worry!" an energetic third voice responded. "This is nothing compared to all the monsters we had to fight during our battle with Kurome! This will be a cup of pudding compared to that!"

"It's piece of cake, Ms. Neptune," Sync corrected, greeting the surprise reinforcements with a cheerful wave. "Though I guess a cup of pudding would be easier for you to finish."

With a loud laugh, Big Neptune walked into full view as the light around her completely vanished. Next to her, Neptune and Nepgear followed suit with both their HDD activated and all of their processors fully equipped for battle.

There was a long silence as K-Sha, the heroes, and the fans all stared at the new arrivals in surprise. Not surprisingly, Neptune was the one to break the calm. The adult-looking Neptune that was. Er... the adult-looking Neptune that wasn't Purple Heart to be more exact. Good goddesses, that's a lot of Nep-

"Alrighty then!" Big Nep shouted, cutting completely across the narrator's complaints (rawr). With a large, confident smirk, she pointed out dramatically towards the crowd of fans before her. "I hope all of you are prepared cause the Planeptune cavalry has finally arrived!"

Unfortunately for her, the narrator was still sore about being interrupted and decided to end the scene right there.

"Wait, wha-"


	14. Legacy of the Tsun (Pt 3)

**Ch 14: Legacy of the Tsun (Pt 3)**

...take this coupon for a buy-one-get-one-free deal at that pudding parlor you like so much. Now can you please stop complaining about me and get back to the fight before- Oh, crap. The author's started the story already.

"Huh?" Big Neptune asked, looking up to the sky in confusion as she pocketed her pudding coupon. "I thought you were the author?"

No, I'm the narrator. There's a big difference. Look, just stop asking questions and get moving. If you don't hurry, I'm going to be forced to include a really long description of how I'm keeping the fans away from you and I don't want to deal with that. Not to mention, I'm seriously breaking continuity here by talking to you so get back to the main plot before I get into trouble.

"Hm... I don't know. You seem awfully fishy to me. Like mackerel fishy. Those things can really smell bad if-"

Hurry up and get going or I'll start this chapter myself!

"Now you sound even more suspicious. I think I'll need to-"

* * *

Noire and Sync were standing next to the side of the broadcast tower with Nepgear healing them when a large explosion caught their attention. Looking up in surprise, they saw Big Nep go sailing through the air with a comical scream... right before she proceeded to land directly on top of Noire.

"That was a cheap shot!" the older Neptune yelled, immediately leaping off her dazed landing cushion to start yelling at the sky like a lunatic. "Hey! That's not very nice! I know plenty of non-crazy people who also scream at the sky like this!"

"Um... big sis?" Nepgear asked worriedly. "Who are you talking to?"

"Huh? Oh, the mean old narrator, of course!" Big Nep answered, giving her dimensionally-adopted younger sister a smile. "She's been acting like a real jerk to me! At least, I think it's a she. It's kind of hard to tell when all of his or her responses come out as giant texts on the screen."

"Ahem," a flattened figure suddenly interrupted from the ground.

"Oh! Sorry about that Noire!" Big Nep apologized, helping up the disgruntled goddess with a smile still on her face. "Heh heh. Small me was right though. You really do make a great landing pad! I hardly felt a thing when I fell on you!"

Noire gave a low growl as she dusted off her clothes.

"It's official," she muttered. "I hate all Neptunes."

Big Nep did not seem to hear her as she instead turned to give a rather Ram-like pout in the direction she had just come flying from.

"This isn't over!" she yelled, shaking her fist in mock anger. "I'll figure out your secret identity sooner or later! And then I'm going to blow you up just like you did to me!"

There was no answer to her shout. The only thing Big Nep's outburst did was to make her look even crazier than before.

"I can still hear you, you know!"

Sync gave a small laugh before giving his mentor a calming pat on the shoulder.

"Let's focus on dealing with K-Sha and the fans first, Ms. Neptune," he consoled. "We can get back to this once we're not in danger of being killed by the fan-pocalypse."

Big Nep gave a final, childish glare at the sky before deflating.

"Fine, fine. I guess I did get a free pudding coupon out of this so I'll look the other way for now."

With that, she finally turned her attention to the battlefield only to stop in surprise.

"Wha-? You guys started the fight without me?! Awww, man! I had an epic speech prepared and everything!"

"Hmph. It's your fault for wasting all that time shouting at the sky," Noire grumbled from the sidelines.

Big Nep once again ignored the black-haired goddess as she continued to scan the battlefield while pretending to hold up a pair of imaginary binoculars with her hands. "Oh?" she eventually said, spotting the nearby Hunters swinging about their gigantic Great Swords. "Why's everyone using their normal weapons again? I thought we were trying to keep all of the fans alive." A look of shocked realization suddenly appeared on her face as she lowered her arms. "Oh no! Did our Tsun-Tsun goddess finally snap and order for all her citizens to be executed?! No, don't do it Noire! I know you're annoyed at your fans but its not worth starting the Genocide Route over!"

Noire looked very much split between wanting to facepalm and wanting to violently stab the older Neptune with her sword. Luckily, she eventually decided upon the former as she also let out a world-weary sigh.

"Keep it together, Noire," she whispered to herself. "You haven't killed Neptune after all these years. Don't cave in and break the record now."

"Um... she's had a bit of a hard day," Sync explained while Big Nep and Nepgear looked at the muttering Lastation CPU worriedly. Deciding to give the mentally unstable goddess some room to get her sanity back together, he redirected his tutor's attention to him by answering her earlier question.

"Anyways... The reason we're using our regular weapons is because K-Sha's new power gave all of the fans their very own energy field. None of our riot-suppression weapons were doing anything so we went back to our standard gear. Here, I'll show you what I mean with this incoming fan."

The aforementioned fangirl slipped past the perimeter that C-Sha and the Hunters had set up around them and barreled straight towards Noire with a deranged yell. Sync did not let her get very far as he immediately teleported behind the fan and swung his activated Share Blade at her body. Rather than being cut in two and moving the story's rating up to a 'M', a flash of gold ignited from the point of impact as an energy field made up of small glowing hexagons briefly became visible around the fan. The force of the blow still sent the golden-eyed minion tumbling forward though as she landed flat on her face. She continued skidding along the ground for a full meter before finally coming to a stop in front of the three onlookers.

"Oh, one more thing," Sync said, casually turning back around to his audience members. "K-Sha's power also gave the fans infinite HP so it's impossible to knock them unconscious like before."

As he said this, the prone fangirl suddenly leaped back up like some kind of zombie jump scare. Even though she had been expecting it, Noire could not help but let out a small scream at the sheer suddenness of having a crazed fan inches away from glomping her face.

Luckily for her, Sync quickly came to her rescue as he waved his hand in the direction of the jumping fangirl. With a flash of green and a comical-sounding 'pop!', the attacker was teleported back away into the fan crowd.

"The most we can do is send them flying as far away from us as possible," Sync continued from his previous point. "As for my powers, I can't teleport them right away due to their unique energy fields. We need to inflict at least one good hit against their shields before its weakened enough for my powers to get through."

Big Nep gave an exaggerated nod of understanding to her student as he made his way back to them. Not surprisingly, her next comment went completely off-tangent from what he had just been talking about.

"Heh heh. Looks like you finally decided to show everyone your main weapon huh," she said, pointing at Sync's laser blade with a smile. "Did you make its reveal as awesome as we planned?"

"Hm... I'd say it was a six point five out of ten," he replied with a shrug. "I got the timing down pretty well but I didn't really get the chance to set up much of an initial presentation."

"Aw, does that mean you didn't get to use the flame cannons and strobe lights that I prepared?"

Before Sync could respond, Nepgear suddenly zoomed in and latched onto the weapon on his arm.

"I was planning to ask you this after the battle but... is this really an actual Psi-Blade?!" the lilac-haired tinkerer asked, her eyes gleaming even more brightly than it usually did in her HDD form. "I've been wanting to create one these things for ages! You said you channel share energy to form the blade right? How exactly are you doing that? Is it similar to how the rest of us create energy blades? What kind of kinetic wavelength do you use? Is it refined through the use of a focusing crystal? What are the specs of the main power unit for this thing?"

"Um... Nepgear?" Sync said with a sudden pained expression. "Can you please stop pulling on my arm like that? I don't think Chika and K-Sha are gong to be very happy if they found out you ripped off one of my limbs before they did."

Nepgear immediately seemed to come to her senses as she stopped trying to yank his arm off. Her hands, however, still remained firmly over the high-tech armguard.

"Goodness!" she exclaimed with an apologetic look. "I... I'm sorry! I guess I got a little bit carried away there!" She paused before looking at Sync with a rather expectant look. "Um... I know this isn't the best time to ask but can you come over to my laboratory once this is all over so I can perform an in-depth analysis of your weapon?"

Sync answered with a rather wry grin. "I'm pretty sure we'll have to wait until Histoire's ban on your laboratory is lifted before we can do anything in there again. And I highly doubt she'll make an exception for me this time after our little... hedgehog incident."

Nepgear quickly deflated while looking very much like a sad panda.

"Muuu... I guess you're right... But I really wanted to research your Share Blade..."

"Aw, cheer up, Nepgear!" Big Nep suddenly interjected. "You can still do your research by seeing my little teddy bear use his Share Blade in battle, right?"

The mad scientist quickly perked up again as she seemed to regain the fire in her eyes.

"You're right! This is a perfect opportunity for me to collect some field data!"

"Um... Ms. Neptune?" Sync interrupted with a rather uneasy grin. "Can you please stop calling me your teddy bear in public? It's kind of embarrassing. Also, Nepgear? Stop tightening your grip over my Share Blade. You're going to end up crushing it at this rate."

Before either of the Nep sisters could answer him, a bright flash of light and the sound of an HDD being activated went off next to them.

"Okay, I've had enough stupidity for the day," Noire said irritably, her energy reserves apparently restored thanks to her brief rest and Nepgear's earlier healing. "Now if you three idiots don't mind, I'm gonna go do something productive with my life by helping Vert and Neptune fight off K-Sha."

Without another word, the Tsundere goddess took off into the sky leaving the trio to look up at her fading form in stunned silence.

After a few seconds, Sync turned to his two remaining associates with a mischievous grin slowly appearing on his face.

"Wanna see how far I can send the fans flying with my Share Blade?"

Big Nep mirrored his grin with a diabolical laugh while Nepgear eagerly pulled out her N-Gear to record the data.

* * *

"About time you showed up Noire," Neptune acknowledged in her (thankfully) more mature HDD form. "I was beginning to think you were going to be sitting on the bench this entire fight."

While the comment irked her, the Lastation CPU was simply glad to have some semblance of normality return to her life.

"Please," Noire scoffed, flying up to Neptune's side with her usual haughty look. "Like I'd let you steal all the glory after all the hard work I put in. Just ask Vert how much effort I put into carrying the team throughout the whole day."

"Please don't drag me into another one of your squabbles," the Leanbox CPU sighed. She quickly parried aside another sword swing from K-Sha before moving back to regroup with her allies.

"So what's the situation?" Noire asked, pulling out her own sword and pointing it at her processor-equipped stalker.

Neptune kept her eyes focused on their enemy as well as she answered. "I don't know what you and Vert did before I got here but it seems K-Sha's gone completely berserk. There's no point trying to reason with her now seeing as how she's only capable of raging and screaming."

"Great," the Lastation CPU muttered. "She's turned into an even crazier version of Blanc."

Neptune gave a small laugh to this before continuing on. "Asides from your appearance, she's also copied over all of your weapon skills. Thankfully, none of that is much of an issue. If she had copied -my- sword skills and good looks on the other hand, we might have been in some actual trouble."

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny," Noire responded dryly. "Try saying that after you successfully beat me in a one-on-one duel for once."

The standard back-and-forth between them was cut short when Vert suddenly threw her spear at K-Sha. Just like before, the weapon exploded upon contact as the Yandere Queen's entire form was instantly engulfed in a massive green gale.

"If you two ladies are done comparing your egos, I suggest we turn our attentions back to our current predicament" Vert stated, her spear magically materializing back into her hand.

Neptune just gave an unimpressed look at the attack before turning to Noire. "What's gotten her so serious?"

"She's probably still mad at K-Sha for hurting her _precious baby brother_ ," the Lastation CPU loudly said, making sure to put a metric ton of sarcasm into the last part.

Before Vert could protest, a hailstorm of bullets came firing out of the fading green explosion in front of them. Noire and Vert quickly flew out of the way while Neptune decided to show off by casually deflecting the projectiles with her sword.

"This has nothing to do with my br... Sync!" Vert cried out, barely paying any attention to K-Sha as she came back into view without a scratch on her.

Noire rolled her eyes at the comment as the Yandere Queen gave a feral yell and shot towards her.

"And people accuse me of being the Tsundere."

Muttering this, the Lastation CPU brought up her sword to counter K-Sha's attack. The two exchanged a flurry of blows for a couple of seconds with neither side managing to land a hit due to their identical sword styles. The stalemate only came to a close when Neptune flew in to try and get a sneak attack in from the side. As K-Sha was forced to back away from the surprise Victory Slash, Noire turned back to Vert with a sneer. "Face it Vert. You totally care about that stupid brat and you're just too proud to admit it."

"I am not!" Vert hotly denied. "I simply have my reasons for keeping him safe!"

Off to the side, Neptune cleanly cut through the missile K-Sha launched at her as it exploded dramatically behind her. With a satisfied nod, she turned to face Vert as well.

"So you actually decided to accept the tiny harem lord as you brother? I have to say, I'm rather surprised by this sudden development."

"Not you too," the Leanbox CPU groaned. After unleashing her Inbetween Spear skill to force K-Sha off of Noire, she continued on in an exasperated voice. "Like I've already stated, I'm simply keeping him alive for the time being for reasons I shall not disclose here! And despite your ludicrous claims, I still haven't accepted him as my b... b... bro... gah! CPU Candidate!"

Luckily for her, K-Sha's next wave of missiles forced Neptune and Noire away from her and next to each other instead.

"Tiny harem lord?" Noire asked with a raised eyebrow.

Neptune gave a small laugh. "It's simply a little joke I use to tease the boy. Although I do suppose that I tend to take the matter a bit more seriously when I'm in my human form."

Noire just rolled her eyes at this before cutting down the missiles with Neptune doing the same next to her.

"Okay, enough messing around," Noire declared as the last of the missiles blew up behind her. "Vert! Neptune! Let's hit her with everything we've got!"

The other two gave a quick nod as they followed her lead and flew in to trap their opponent in a loose triangle formation. With K-Sha momentarily pausing to assess their abrupt change in tactics, the three of them were free to charge up their energy as their respective colored auras began to fully enshroud them. Before the Yandere Queen could choose to act, the three glowing goddesses flew forward to unleash their ultimate attacks.

"Infinite Slash!"

"Spiral Break!"

"Neptune Break!"

The night sky was lit up by a tri-colored flurry of moving lights as the CPUs seamlessly weaved together their EXE Drives in a stunning display of coordination and skill. K-Sha found herself being tossed about through the air like a rag doll as the goddesses flew in one after another to deliver a seemingly endless barrage of attacks against her. In no time at all, the combo count was up in the hundreds as a faint crack appeared in the Gold Third's energy shield. Not giving their enemy a chance to recover, the three goddesses flew up and activated their finishing blows.

"I'll slice you down!" Noire yelled, enlarging her sword with a mass of rainbow-colored energy before throwing it down towards K-Sha.

"Vanish into nothingness!"

Vert's spear blazed to life in a surge of green as she hurled it downwards as well.

The two projectiles slammed into the stunned Yandere as visible cracks appeared over her shield. Before the two attacks could detonate, Neptune dive-bombed towards their target at mach-speeds with her sword held out in front of her.

"This is the end for you!"

As soon as Neptune's strike connected, all three attacks exploded together in a massive influx of colors. The sheer force of the blast ended up shattering several of the broadcast tower's windows as the rest of the surrounding area was blinded by the bright flash of light. By the time everyone's vision returned, all that remained over K-Sha's location was a giant black cloud of smoke.

"Hm. Perhaps we overdid it a bit," Neptune said, casually flying out of the smoke cloud and up to her friends. Obviously, she had not been affected by the explosion as friendly fire was always set to 'off' by default in their world.

Noire gave a visible eye twitch at the fourth wall break but tried her best to ignore it.

"I highly doubt K-Sha's been defeated," Vert commented, looking down at the smoke cloud with a dubious look. "It's common anime knowledge that the villain is always still alive if the heroes' ultimate attack leaves behind an obscuring cloud of smoke rather than utterly vaporizing them."

"Okay, enough with the meta nonsense already!" Noire yelled. "Can we just confirm whether K-Sha's been incapacitated or not?"

Her question was answered when a golden blur shot out of the smoke cloud and flew towards them.

"Tornado Sword!"

A giant, rainbow-colored blade suddenly swept through the air as it hit all three of the surprised goddesses.

"Kyaaaa!"

Neptune took the most direct hit from K-Sha's copied SP Skill as she went sailing towards the direction of the tower. Luckily, Noire managed to recover quickly enough to fly forward and catch her friend before she could crash into the building.

"Th... Thank you, Noire," Neptune murmured, her head still in a daze from the sudden blow.

The Lastation CPU simply gave her a small smile before looking around for their third teammate. As it turned out, Vert was only a couple meters away to their right as she had managed to steady herself soon after Noire did. Sharing a short nod, the two CPUs turned their attention towards their attacker.

"Where's Noire? I need my lovely Noire," the Yandere Queen muttered with a deranged smile on her face. "Kill everything that isn't Noire. It'll just be us together. Nothing else matters. Just Noire. Just. Noire."

"What is wrong with her?" the Lastation CPU could not help but ask, feeling very much disturbed by what her former friend had become.

Neptune cleared her head with one final shake before she slid out of Noire's grasp and looked over at K-Sha with a serious look.

"I think she's being consumed by her own powers."

"What are you talking about?" Noire asked.

Vert took this opportunity to fly over and join their conversation.

"She's been connected to all of these fans for so long that she's starting to lose control," the Leanbox CPU explained, quickly catching onto Neptune's line of thought. "While the fans are giving her all this power, they're also driving her insane with their overwhelming obsession towards you. Even K-Sha's willpower can't handle that much of a mental overload without finally snapping."

As if to highlight her point, K-Sha let out a loud scream as she began to fire her Uzi wildly through the air.

"Tch. There's no other choice then," Neptune suddenly said. "I'll activate my Next-Form and try to destroy her power directly with my Dimensional Slice. I did it before to get rid of Kurome's control over Affimojas so it should work here now."

"I'd advise against that Neptune," Vert warned. "You were performing a scripted attack then and I highly doubt you have the necessary plot powers right now to pull it off again. If you mess this up, K-Sha might end up seriously hurt. And even with all the trouble she's caused, I'd rather avoid that if possible."

"Stop breaking the fourth wall already, dammit!" Noire yelled. The other two CPUs just gave her a flat look as she took several deep breaths to calm herself. After a couple of seconds, she turned back to address Neptune.

"I can't agree to this plan either. Putting aside all that meta nonsense, I doubt you have enough shares to activate your Next-Form."

Neptune gave a small smile. "I'm sure I can scrape together enough to maintain the transformation for a few minutes. I'll probably be out of commission afterwards but I think I can risk that with you looking after me."

Noire immediately turned a bright shade of red at this as she struggled to come up with a response.

The Planeptune CPU gave a small laugh before focusing her attention back on K-Sha with her serious look back in place.

"I don't like this either but it's the best chance we've got. I'll accept all responsibility for what happens next so leave the rest to me."

Without waiting for a response, she began to focus her energy before summoning her share crystal to her hand.

"Alright! Next-Form, acti-"

Her shout was interrupted when a fan suddenly sailed into the air before smacking directly into K-Sha like a human torpedo.

A stunned silence fell over the area as the fan ricocheted off his boss's energy shield with a silly-sounding 'clang!' before falling back down into the crowd below. There was a momentary pause before the Yandere Queen (as well as the three CPUs and all of the fans) turned their heads to look towards the source of the human projectile.

"Er... does that count as a home-run?"

Sync was currently frozen mid-swing as it became very clear to everyone watching that he had been the one to send the fan flying with his Share Blade. In front of him, Big Nep was holding onto another struggling fan by the back of his shirt and pants as she looked to be preparing to toss him towards her batter. And last but not least, Nepgear was standing off to the side recording the whole thing with her N-Gear.

A long, drawn-out second passed before Big Nep broke the silence.

"Well... this can't be good."

K-Sha affirmed this by flying directly towards the boy while screaming like a banshee.

* * *

"Yup! Definitely not good!"

Despite her words, Big Nep still managed to look as cheery as ever as she quickly tossed the fans she had been holding towards their attacker.

K-Sha simply swatted him away with her sword before unleashing a volley of missiles at them in retaliation.

"I got this!" Sync called out.

Using his powers on as many low-energy fans as he was capable of, he teleported the mass of bodies directly into the path of the explosive projectiles. Just as he expected, all of the missiles detonated against the fans without actually harming them due to their allied status with K-Sha.

The heroes did not get a chance to catch their breath, however, as the Yandere plowed through the falling rain of fans with her sword held at the ready.

"DIE!"

Big Nep quickly pulled out her own twin swords as she and Sync both leaped up to counter the strike. A bright flash of light erupted from their clash as the two of them managed to parry away the large energy sword with their own weapons. Pushing away from their opponent, Big Nep and Sync landed onto the ground in a crouch while K-Sha flailed through the air for a bit before managing to steady herself. With her previous madness replaced with a look of pure hatred, she floated down to the ground as she glared death at her opponents.

"Sync!"

Everyone in the vicinity briefly glanced up as they spotted Vert flying towards them with Neptune and Noire following close behind. Much to the CPUs surprise, however, Sync suddenly held up his hand to halt her.

"We've got this, sis," he casually said, standing back up with his mentor as they assumed their respective fighting stances. "Go help C-Sha and the Hunters hold back the fans instead."

"This isn't the time to be showing off!" Noire yelled. "K-Sha's currently strong enough to go toe-to-toe with all three of us!"

"Heh heh. Looks like we'll actually have a bit of a challenge then," Big Nep said, giving her student a smile that he quickly returned.

"We're being serious here! Don't-!"

Sync cut off Noire's words with a shake of his head. "Like I said before, Ms. Neptune and I can handle this. We only have to wait a few more minutes before the broadcast and the two of us can definitely hold out until then." He gave a pause as he turned his gaze towards Nepgear. "By the way, can I ask you to go heal up our sisters? They seem a bit worn out from their fight. You can skip over Noire though seeing as how she seems fit enough to waste energy yelling at us."

Ignoring the angry shout coming from the Lastation CPU, Nepgear gave him a small nod. "O... Of course. But are you sure the two of you can do this by yourselves? I can help too, you know."

"Nah, it's fine. Besides, I think Ms. Neptune and the twins are the only ones with a high enough Lily Rank with me at the moment for my skill to work."

Nepgear gave a confused quirk of her head to this before deciding to simply follow through with his request instead.

As the Planeptune CPU Candidate flew up towards the other CPUs, Big Nep glanced at Sync with a playful smile.

"So we're finally going to test out your special skill in a real battle, huh."

Sync gave a matching smile in return. "Couldn't ask for a more perfect opportunity than this one."

He turned to face his opponent who had been busy charging up her sword with the same rainbow-colored energy as before.

"Sorry about the wait," he called out. "I have to say though, you're rather considerate for holding back whenever we happen to go off-tangent around you. But then again, maybe that's just the Final Boss Syndrome kicking in and forcing you to wait around until we're ready to face you."

The only response he got was an increased flare in the golden aura surrounding her.

"Okay, let's do this!"

In a move that bewildered everyone, he turned off his Share Blade and lifted up his hand towards his tutor.

"Synchronize!"

Sync's entire form was suddenly covered by a blazing purple aura while the older Neptune became enshrouded in a similar green one. As the crowd watched in confusion and surprise, Big Nep stepped forward with a confident smirk as she pointed her glowing twin swords at her opponent.

"The first move's mine."

Without any further warning, she vanished from view in a flash of green. K-Sha's heightened battle senses immediately warned her of danger as she quickly turned around to find Big Nep materialize behind her. Pushing aside her surprise, the Yandere Queen swung about her Tornado Sword to slice through her enemy. Her attack ended up going through empty air, however, as Big Nep disappeared once again in a flash of green.

"Take this!"

K-Sha did not have a chance to defend herself as the older Neptune appeared in her left blind spot and slashed out with her swords. There was a loud sparking noise as the enhanced metal clashed against the Gold Third's energy shield before K-Sha forced her attacker away with a sweeping kick. Big Nep quickly back-flipped away before teleporting back next to a smiling Sync. Having been charging up his energy this whole time, he turned towards his opponent with both his arms raised.

"Emulate: Nepnical Combination!"

A pair of swords identical to the ones Big Nep was carrying appeared in his hands before he sent them spinning through the air towards K-Sha. The whirling blades caught her by surprise as they smashed against her shield in a flurry of sparks before they flew off to the sides. The spinning blades only turned out to be the beginning though as Sync ran forward while firing off a pistol that had suddenly materialized in his left hand. As the bullets kept the Yandere pinned in place, the dual swords came spinning back around to deliver another series of cross-slashes against his target. Dispersing the gun he was holding, he caught both swords as he neared them and began to personally unleash a barrage of sword-strikes against K-Sha.

The Yandere Queen finally managed to gather her wits at this point as she struck out with her own sword. However, Sync had been anticipating the move as he simply jumped back while dispersing his copied swords and reforming the pistol again. Landing onto the ground, he aimed his firearm with a wide smile.

"Bang."

An unexpectedly large explosion erupted from the bullet as it made contact with its target. As the surrounding area was blinded in a massive flash of white light, Leanbox's green emblem seemed to briefly flash across the sky before quickly disappearing.

"Whew," Sync breathed out, dispelling the gun in his hand and brushing away the beads of sweat on his forehead. "You're EXE Drive is exhausting to use Ms. Neptune. Maybe you can cut down on the sword stuff and just focus on the exploding bullet some more."

Big Nep gave a laugh as she stepped up next to him. "Heh heh. Where's the fun in that? Besides, style points are everything my dear Padawan."

Sync conceded the point with a small bow of his head before giving his mentor a smile.

"So, shall we end this with our finishing move?"

Big Nep put away her swords as a bright gleam appeared in her eyes.

"Yes! I've been looking forward to this!"

As the rest of the crowd began to slowly recover their vision from the EXE Drive's flashy end, they looked ahead to find Sync and Big Nep standing back-to-back carrying a pair of enormous spoons in their hands.

"WOOOHOOOO!" the older Neptune cheered. "Let's do this!"

A mass of green portals suddenly opened up above the entire courtyard as the crowd below looked up in surprise. Without wasting another moment, both Sync and Big Nep swung down their giant spoons with matching enthusiastic grins.

"PUDDING PARTY!"

It was safe to say that Gamindustri as a whole was not prepared for the sheer absurdity of the attack that was unleashed upon it that day.

As the crowd below looked up with horrified eyes, giant house-sized custard puddings began to appear out of the portals in the sky before dropping down towards them. K-Sha in particular got an extra-large pudding all to herself as she could only gape in shock at the gigantic dessert descending upon her. One of the fans managed to regain some of his senses in time to let out a shrill scream right before the gargantuan sweets flattened the entire landscape.

A literal sea of custard and caramel syrup drowned out the surrounding area as the fans struggled to free themselves from the pudding hell. Of course, for a certain purple-haired girl, it was more of a pudding heaven than a hell.

"PUDDING! PUDDING! PUDDING!"

With a smile bright enough to light up an entire star system, Big Nep tossed aside her spoons and willingly jumped into the mass of puddings that had somehow managed to avoid landing on her. In fact, all of the heroes – as well as the broadcast tower - were completely unscathed as some kind of invisible force kept the gelatinous yellow mass away from them. Thankfully for Big Nep though, it seemed she was still allowed to approach the pudding if she wanted to.

Meanwhile, the three goddesses plus Nepgear were busy floating in the air trying to process what exactly had just happened.

"Neptune," Noire eventually said, snapping out of her shocked state to look over at her friend with a flat look. "Close your mouth. You're starting to drool."

The Planeptune CPU quickly did as she was told as she tried her hardest to keep her dignified image and not go swimming in the Pudding Sea like her other-dimensional counterpart.

Vert, meanwhile, took this time to fly back down and land next to Sync.

"What... was that?" she asked.

Sync gave a small laugh as the purple aura around him vanished. At the same time, the green aura around Big Nep disappeared as well.

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that sis," he said, dispersing the giant spoons he had still been carrying. "There's kind of a lot things you're question could currently apply to."

Before Vert could say anything more, the Hunters and C-Sha walked into view as the mass of pudding magically moved aside for them.

"You think this stuff is edible?" one of the Hunters asked, scraping off a bit with his finger.

The Hunter next to him took a glance at Big Nep who was busy swimming freestyle in the stuff with her mouth wide open. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say yes."

The first Hunter gave a shrug to this before scooping up a handful himself and eating it.

Noire, Neptune, and Nepgear soon flew down to join the group as well as they all gathered around Sync.

"Okay, explain." Noire said, looking both exasperated and shocked at the same time.

Sync gave a mischievous grin at her. "Explain what? Why the sky is blue? The grass is green? Maybe even explain how much of Neptune's love for pudding carries over into her HDD form? The answer to that last one is 'a lot' by the way."

Everyone followed Sync's gaze as they turned around to spot Purple Heart carrying two giant globs of pudding in her hands and her mouth currently full.

"Wha?" she responded, trying and utterly failing to keep her regal tone. "Camph I enfoy puthin doo?"

Everyone gave her a flat look that could have rivaled Blanc's chest before turning back around to Sync.

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Noire reiterated. "I want you to tell us exactly what that weird skill of yours in the beginning was, how the other Neptune used _your_ teleporting abilities, how you used _her_ EXE Drive, and how you managed to make it rain _pudding_ from the sky!"

A loud scream suddenly interrupted them before Sync could answer.

"Bleh! I think I accidentally bit down on a fan's arm!" Big Nep loudly complained. "Sync! Can you teleport away all the fans inside the pudding I'm in?"

Her student obediently did as he was told as the area around her was briefly illuminated by a green light.

"Thanks!"

As Big Nep went back to her feast, Sync turned back to Noire with a wide grin.

"Really, that's what you want to ask? Even Ram and Rom could have figured all of that stuff out for themselves. But then again I suppose it makes sense seeing as how they both have a higher INT stat than you."

Noire began to growl dangerously again reminding him of his previous decision not to piss her off anymore for the night.

"Ahem. It's called Synchronization," he quickly explained. "It's my special ability that lets me share powers with an ally based on our Lily Rank."

"So... it's like a Social Link?" Nepgear asked, deciding to fill in for her preoccupied sisters.

Sync gave an amused chuckle to this. "I guess it does have its similarities. Though, I can't summon any mythical demons and angels that get more powerful depending on my relationships. My ability's a bit more direct in that it boosts the stats of both myself and my partner while I have it on. It also allows us to share weapon proficiency, SP skills, EXE Drives, and specialized Formation Skills as our Lily Rank increases."

"I guess that explains pretty much all of Noire's questions," C-Sha said, bringing up a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Though I have to ask: If you had an ability like that, why didn't you use it in any of our earlier battles?"

Sync gave a casual shrug. "There's a minimum requirement of having a Lily Rank of 5 with me in order for the skill to work." He paused as he suddenly gave a contemplative look of his own. "Now that I think about it, the term Lily Rank doesn't exactly fit anymore seeing as how it's not really a Yuri relationship if I'm involved. Hm... maybe I should just call it Love-Love Ranks from now on?"

He shook his head of the thought before anyone could comment on it and continued on with his previous explanation.

"Anyways, Ram and Rom were the only ones who met the requirement at the time. Even if I had bonded with either of them, the only useful thing we would've gotten was the stat boost seeing as how we wouldn't have known how to fully utilize our new powers. I mean, Ms. Neptune and I had to spend an entire day practicing with our shared abilities before we could pull off anything battle-worthy."

"Heh heh. Your teleporting abilities were super tricky to get the hang of even for me," Big Nep commented from the sidelines, happily doing the backstroke across her pudding. "I'm pretty sure I teleported into the park lake at least a dozen times while we were practicing."

"Weren't you doing that on purpose just to ignore the 'no swimming' sign?" Sync chimed in with a smile.

Big Nep gave a sheepish laugh while everyone else simply sweatdropped.

A brief silence followed afterwards as the group tried to wrap their heads around everything they had just learned. The only sound that could be heard for a while were the two Neptunes stuffing their faces with pudding as well as the faint groans coming from the fans buried somewhere underneath the stuff. Of course, Purple Heart tried her best to keep her actions discrete to maintain her image but was not doing a very good job of it. Luckily for her, everyone else was too preoccupied to pay much mind to the gluttonous goddess.

After a while, one of the Hunters finally spoke back up.

"By the way... how exactly is all this pudding keeping away from us?"

Sync gave a carefree wave. "The narrator said it before. Allies don't get affected by each others' offensive skills in this world."

"Huh," the Hunter said. "Is that also why the older Neptune doesn't have any pudding or syrup covering her clothes despite swimming in the stuff?"

Before the meta discussion could go any further, the ground suddenly began to shake violently.

"Looks like our Yandere Queen's finally back up," Sync casually stated.

Right on cue, a nearby mass of pudding exploded outwards as a familiar glowing form became visible once more.

"RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

With an inhuman screech, K-Sha lifted up her left hand and clenched it into a fist. The courtyard was filled with a golden light as a mass of energy radiated out of all the buried fans in the area. The blast instantly vaporized all of the pudding as the mind-controlled fans slowly rose up once more.

"NOOOO! MY PUDDING!"

Even Big Nep's isolated pudding mountain had been caught in the blast as all traces of the delicious confection disappeared from the entire area.

"K-Sha! You'll pay for what you've just done!" Purple Heart declared, her sword back in her hand as she pointed it dangerously at the vile pudding destroyer.

The Yandere Queen paid her no mind as she instead turned her feral eyes towards the one who had caused her so much torment. With her Black Heart processors still equipped, K-Sha rose up into the sky as a glowing ball of golden energy gathered in her hands.

"DAMN YOU ALL!"

With her first coherent sentence in a while, she raised her hands into the air and began to increase the size of her energy ball. Soon, the entire city was lit up by the gargantuan orb of destructive energy as K-Sha looked down at her nemesis with a twisted smile.

"DIE!"

Right before she could unleash her death blast, however, a large holographic screen suddenly appeared over all four sides of the broadcast tower as Ram and Rom's faces appeared on it.

" _...finally on now?"_ Ram's voice echoed out throughout the city's emergency broadcast speakers. _"Sheesh, how long is it- Oh! Hey! We're finally on! Sorry about the wait everyone! I accidentally froze one of the important thingy-ma-bobs but it looks like they finally got it fixed!"_

As K-Sha and the fans stared at the screen in confusion, Sync gave a triumphant smile from below.

"Checkmate."

* * *

Vert stared with wide-eyes herself as their ultimate plan finally came into fruition. As she watched, rows and rows of holographic screens identical to the ones over the tower came online as they hung in the air all throughout the city. No, not just the city. If the boy's plan was working, then the entirety of Lastation was now watching the emergency broadcast as well.

" _Um... everyone!"_ Rom spoke up, sounding as shy as ever. _"W... We've got something very important to tell you s...so... please look very closely at us!"_

"Get your eyes off the screens!" Noire urgently said, keeping her voice low so that only her teammates could hear.

Vert looked at her in confusion for a moment before remembering what exactly their plan was. Obviously, the Lastation CPU had been the first to remember due to her traumatic magical girl incident.

Vert gave a small smile at the memory before focusing on keeping her eyes firmly on the ground. A few seconds later, a massive intake of breath was heard coming from the fans as the twins apparently unleashed their puppy-dog eyes on them.

" _Everyone who is a fan of Ms. Noire, please stop causing trouble,"_ Rom's amplified voice said.

"Understood," the fans immediately chorused back in a daze.

Vert was highly tempted to take a peek at the overwhelming cuteness that the twins were clearly presenting but just barely managed to hold herself in check. Luckily for her, her logical side had the foresight of tying up the Per-Vert in a straight-jacket and locking her up inside a closet before the whole thing started. Ironically, the loud hammering noise of her second dominant personality trying to escape actually helped distract her from the temptation of looking up.

" _We also need you to stop trying to kill Sync,"_ Ram said.

"Who?" the crowd chorused back.

The twins apparently had a camera and microphone transmitting what was happening outside the tower as they quickly corrected themselves.

" _She's talking about the... Waifu Thief."_

Vert felt a sudden chill go up her spine at the quiet venom in Rom's last two words. Unlike the burning fury that her sisters liked to use, Rom's anger seemed to manifest as something much colder and merciless.

Apparently the fans seemed to catch onto the dangerous tone as well as their unified voice took on a shaky edge.

"We... We understand. We promise not to harm him... ma'am."

Rom gave an extremely cute-sounding giggle to this which quickly reasserted her complete control over her audience.

" _Oh, right,"_ Ram said. _"That stupid news about him being married to Noire was just a prank and all of you are going to treat it that way. The only person he's going to marry is me and Rom!"_

Surprisingly, Vert was not the only one to let out a choking noise to this while the fans acknowledged their order.

"Okay, now they're taking things a bit too far," Sync muttered, his smile actually faltering a bit. "Oh, man. Blanc is not going to be happy about this."

Unable to figure out whether to laugh at his predicament or seethe with jealousy, Vert instead focused her attention back to hearing the rest of the twins' decrees.

" _Um... all of you should also lower your obsession with Ms. Noire a bit,"_ Rom said. _"It's okay to look up to her but acting all crazy over her is wrong."_

Noire let out an approving huff to this.

"Hmph. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all."

" _Oh, oh, oh!"_ Ram suddenly piped up. _"All of you are also going to buy us as much candy as we want whenever we ask you to!"_

"What?!"

Before Noire could shout any further, Rom spoke up again.

" _Um... Ram? Didn't Ms. Noire tell us not to make the fans do anything like that?"_

" _Bah! You gave her a bonus with that last order. It's only fair we get something in return!"_

Rom gave a sigh before addressing the fans again.

" _Okay, I think we're done. Everyone, please go back to your homes and go to sleep. Oh, and if your home was destroyed in the battle, please head to the emergency shelters for now."_

" _See ya later, losers!"_ Ram concluded.

Vert waited until the sounds of the holographic screens turning off was heard before finally raising her head. Ignoring the frenzied Per-Vert in her head, she looked around to see if things had gone according to plan.

As it turned out, there was no cause for any worry as all of the fans began to shuffle back towards the city with similar dazed smiles on their faces. Giving a small sigh of relief, Vert looked up to see how the mastermind behind the fans was reacting.

As it was, the broadcast had clearly managed to stop K-Sha as well. The giant ball of destruction that she had previously created was nowhere to be seen as she slowly floated back down. As soon as she touched the ground, both her processors and her Gold Third form disappeared as she fell down to her knees. Surprisingly, she did not have a blissful expression like the rest of the fans as she simply looked to be in a state of utter shock. Muttering incomprehensibly to herself, she clutched her head and began to rock back and forth like a broken doll.

"Is she-?"

Vert found a hand blocking her approach as she looked over to see Sync shaking his head at her.

"Don't. She's probably facing a major mental breakdown from the broadcast. We should give her some room for now and hope that Ram and Rom's brainwashing manages to overwrite her Yandere personality."

After glancing at the sad figure one final time, Vert gave a nod and turned away.

"So... did we finally win?" the lead Hunter asked.

The other Hunters immediately smacked their leader over the head before looking around worriedly in case another flag had been triggered. Luckily, nothing terrible occurred causing everyone to let out a large breath of relief.

"It's finally over," Vert said, turning off her transformation as everyone else did the same.

"Heh heh. Of course we won!" Neptune shouted out, her usual childish personality quickly asserting itself. "There's no way we could have lost with the main character here!"

"By main character, you mean my little teddy bear, right?" Big Nep asked, moving over to grab Sync and squeezing him just like the toy she referred to him as.

"Hey! I told you to stop being so attached to him! He's going to infect you with his Harem virus!" The smaller purple-haired girl quickly ran over to try and separate the two. "Quick Nepgear! Help me keep him away from her before he turns big me into his personal cat-maid!"

Nepgear just gave an uneasy laugh while Noire face-palmed at the shenanigans. Meanwhile, C-Sha walked up to Vert while stifling a laugh of her own.

"There never seems to be a dull moment with your little brother around," she pointed out with a smile.

"He's not-"

Vert gave a brief glance at the boy's laughing face before changing her response with a sigh.

"...I suppose you're right. Trouble seems to appear wherever he goes."

C-Sha let out a full-blown laugh to this while giving her an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

The group continued on with its lighthearted victory celebrations as the last of the fans emptied out of the courtyard. Eventually, the remaining Lastation soldiers from the other entrances made their way over to them before joining in on the cheering as well. Being the strict boss that she was though, Noire cut their celebrations short as she ordered a large group of them to carry their unconscious comrades over to the tower's lobby to be treated. As for the rest, they were assigned to follow after the fan mob to make sure they were properly heading back to their homes.

"Sync!"

Soon enough, the twins came running up to the smiling boy as they looked up with expectant eyes.

"So?" Ram asked enthusiastically. "Were we awesome or were we awesome awesome?"

Sync gave them both a pat on the head with his brightest smile yet.

"You were Super Mega Ultra Awesome!" he answered.

Rom gave an adorable blushing smile to this while her sister ran around in circles cheering loudly.

"Oh no! He's going after the kids!" Neptune shouted out. "Someone stop-"

Her idiocy was cut short when Noire whacked her over the head.

"Nepu! What was that for Noire? Don't tell me you're also-"

"Shut it," the Lastation CPU growled, smacking her friend(?) over the head again. "I just can't stand to listen to you yelling anymore."

After waiting for the twins (and Neptune) to calm down a bit, Noire approached the boy with her arms crossed.

"Well, I guess your plan worked but how long is it going to last for?" she asked.

Ram perked up excitedly as she answered in his place. "It's permanent! Those fans will obey our orders forever!"

Seeing Noire raise an eyebrow, Rom elaborated for her. "W...We used nearly forty percent of our cuteness on them. Even big sis has trouble resisting us at that level and she's basically immune to us."

"Why'd you stop at forty percent?" Big Nep asked.

"Mina told us to never go over that level no matter what," Ram answered with a shrug. "Something about the world exploding from cuteness overload."

Everyone except for Sync took an unconscious step backwards from the twins.

"Heh. I'm sure you've dealt with the fans just fine," he said, bringing the conversation back around to its main point. "We won't have to worry about anymore fan uprisings at all."

"Speaking of which," Noire said, "what about the people who watched the broadcast that weren't fans? How are they going to be affected?"

C-Sha was the one to answer her.

"Most of what the twins said was directed at the fans and their behavior so I doubt there would be much of an issue. Well, asides from the candy part but I'm sure that won't cause _too_ much of a problem."

Noire gave an angry glare at the sheepishly smiling Ram but thankfully decided to let the matter go in light of their victory.

"Actually..." Sync suddenly chimed in, an uneasy smile appearing on his face. "There is also the tiny fact that most of Lastation will be forced to never harm me again thanks to the second order. Not to mention they probably think of Me x Ram & Rom as their OTP now." He turned towards the twins as his smile became a lot more forced-looking. "We're going to need to have a talk about that later, by the way."

"What?" Ram shrugged off. "I just made it clear that you belong to us."

Not surprisingly, Neptune jumped at the chance like a lion pouncing on its prey. "Aha! I knew it! He's forming a harem! He's starting with the lolis and working his way up!"

Vert got the feeling that if Sync had been a more serious person, he would have face-palmed. Instead, he simply turned his strained smile over to the pointing Planeptune goddess.

"Working up from lolis, you say? Guess that makes you my next target, Neptune."

"AHHHH! NO! You can't take me! Go after Blanc first! She's shorter _and_ flatter than me!"

* * *

 **Lowee, CPU's office**

Blanc crushed the computer mouse in her hand into a tiny ball as she felt a sudden and inexplicable wave of rage for some reason.

* * *

"Nepu! I just felt a major disturbance in the Nep-force!"

Once again, Noire was the one to shut the loud-mouthed CPU up as she whacked her over the head.

"How would a regular citizen watching the broadcast know that you were the ones the twins were referring to?" the twin-tailed CPU asked, completely ignoring Neptune's complaints. "I doubt anyone knows your name and only the fans referred to you as the... Waifu Thief."

Sync passed up his chance to make fun of her for saying his alias as he instead gave a small sigh.

"Sis is probably going to need to publicly announce me as Leanbox's CPU Candidate once we get back. Once everyone links my real name to my appearance, Ram and Rom's commands will take over and force them to comply." He gave a small shrug as his carefree smile returned. "Still, it's not like their commands regarding me were too bad. I really don't mind not being killed and I'm sure I can deal with them believing I'm engaged to the twins."

He gave a sudden cough before continuing on in a quieter tone. "Note to self: Continue work on the brain bleach formula."

"Brain bleach?!" Nepgear cried out, somehow managing to hear his whispered comment. "I want to help work on it too!"

Sync's right eye gave a slight twitch as the mad scientist continued to yell about his secret plan.

Before anyone could respond, a loud groan suddenly interrupted them.

Turning around, the group saw K-Sha shakily getting back up to her feet as she kept her left hand over her head.

Taking charge of the situation, Noire walked forward with her arms crossed.

"Have you finally come back to your senses?" she asked sharply.

K-Sha looked over at the CPU with a dazed look.

"Noire... I..."

The former Yandere Queen stumbled forward before Noire reached out to catch her.

"Geez. I can't believe you did all of that crazy stuff," the twin-tailed goddess said, her voice becoming noticeably gentler as she helped steady her friend. "Look, I can't fully forgive you for what you've done but I'm still glad you're alright."

K-Sha's eyes began to tear up as she looked up at Noire's smiling face.

"Noire..." she whispered out. "Thank you..."

"Thank you for getting rid of all those annoying voices."

Without warning, K-Sha pulled out a black hexagonal object and slammed it into Noire's chest. A mass of energy-laced wires immediately sprouted from the device before wrapping itself tightly around the stunned goddess.

"Noire!" Neptune and Vert cried out.

"What?!" Ram exclaimed, her eyes widening in shock. "No one should have been able to resist our cuteness!"

K-Sha gave a loud laugh as Noire fell before her with her entire body tied up in wires.

"Did you really think something like that would work on me?" the Yandere asked, her voice taking on its falsely sweet tone from before. "The only thing you've done is make me love my darling Noire even more than I already have!"

"K-Sha!" Noire yelled. "Stop this right-!"

A massive jolt of electricity suddenly ran through the wires causing her words to be cut off by her own screams.

"KYAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Now, now, dear," K-Sha chided as the shock ended. "No need to get so worked up. Just stay right there while I take care of these pests, okay?"

Noire barely managed to hold onto her consciousness as she glared up hatefully at her captor.

K-Sha did not seem to care as she stepped forward while flexing her own hand.

"Ah, it feels so nice to finely be back in control again. All those idiots shouting about in my head about wanting my dear Noire for themselves... It really was driving me insane. I really-"

Her eyes momentarily widened as a green laser blade and a pair of metal swords clashed against her still-active energy shield and stopped mere inches away from her neck.

"Hm... Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to interrupt others when they're speaking?" K-Sha asked.

Sync gave a snort as he and his synchronized mentor teleported a few meters back.

"And didn't anyone ever tell you its rude to kidnap goddesses and torture them?" he shot back.

K-Sha gave him a smile as she snapped her fingers. A circle of proximity mines suddenly appeared around Noire as she quickly froze in fear. To make matters worse, Big Nep and Sync soon realized that they could not teleport either the CPU or the explosives away due to K-Sha's Gold Third energy interfering with their powers.

"Hmhm... Noire is mine and I can do what I want with her," the Yandere said happily. Her creepy-looking smile widened as she looked directly into the boy's eyes. "As for you, you've been a thorn in my side for long enough. I think it's about time I removed you from play."

"You'll have to get through us first."

K-Sha merely watched in amusement as Vert and Neptune appeared next to the boy in their HDD forms. Behind them, Nepgear, Ram, Rom, and C-Sha rallied forth as well in their transformed states. Even the Hunters came forward to oppose her even though they looked absolutely terrified underneath their goggles.

K-Sha gave another loud laugh at the assembled heroes.

"Such a lively crowd. However, I believe the little green pest and I already have an appointment together."

A glowing purple-framed card suddenly appeared in her right hand as she looked back at her captive with a wide smile.

"Watch me closely Noire. Let me show you the full extent of my love!"

And with a final maniacal laugh, she activated her trap card.


	15. The War's End

**Ch 15: The War's End**

"Gold Third's Judgment!"

With a bright flash, K-Sha's trap card unleashed an enormous blast of golden energy that-

"Wait!" Big Nep yelled. "You need to tell us exactly what your card does first before you activate it! That's how these things work!"

Oddly enough, the explosion seemed to agree with her statement as it promptly disappeared back into the glowing piece of cardboard. Glaring at the older Neptune for interrupting her moment of glory, K-Sha reluctantly lowered her trap card and called out its effect.

"Gold Third's Judgment allows me to destroy all characters on the opposing side of the field if you have more party members than me. Also, I get to draw three extra cards and make you discard your entire hand but those effects don't really apply here."

Sync immediately leveled an accusing finger at the Yandere. "Hax! I call hax! There's no way an overpowered card like that made it past the ban list!"

K-Sha's creepy smile returned as she looked over at the shouting boy.

"And who do you think _makes_ the ban list?" she asked.

Sync slowly lowered his hand as he seemed to remember just who exactly he was dealing with.

"Oh... right."

With another maniacal laugh, K-Sha raised her (stupidly overpowered) trap card once more.

"Protect the kids!" C-Sha shouted out, proving that she was the only responsible adult in the entire group.

The rest of the older fighters at least did as they were told as they quickly moved forward to create a human/goddess shield in front of Sync and the twins.

"Hey!" Ram shot out indignantly. "Don't treat us like kids! We can take care of-"

There was a sudden flash of gold as a giant magical explosion swept away everyone except for the aforementioned trio.

"...ourselves."

As the energy wave dissipated behind them, Ram and her two standing teammates turned around to find everyone else lying in a heap at the base of the broadcast tower. Apparently, the trap card's blast had managed to knock the adults out of their transformations as even the Synchronization aura around Big Nep had been canceled out. Thankfully though, none of them appeared to be seriously injured... with the exception of Neptune who had the misfortune of having Vert land chest-first over her face.

Ignoring the Planeptune CPU's muffled yells in the distance, Rom gave a small sigh of relief. "I'm glad they're all okay."

Sync was just about to reply to her when his spatial awareness warned him of an incoming danger. Reacting quickly, he teleported himself a few steps to the side as a silver hand ax cleaved through the space where his head had been just moments ago. Turning to this new threat, Sync spotted K-Sha holding up the said ax with a dark smile on her lips.

"Time to die little pest," she giggled out in an extremely unsettling manner.

As the Yandere rushed forward to deliver another swing, Sync swiftly raised his Share Blade to parry it. To his surprise, the laser blade failed to cut through his opponent's weapon as some form of supernatural energy protected it.

"Since when did you have an ax?" he grunted out, struggling to keep the gleaming metal away from his face.

K-Sha increased her pressure on him as she gave another creepy laugh. "Oh, I've had this thing since I found it on a quiet hill as a little kid. I haven't used it since then but I thought now would be a good time to let it taste some blood again."

Luckily for Sync, Rom and Ram came to his rescue as they forced the Yandere to jump away from him with a pair of ice blasts.

"Get away from my servant!" Ram shouted angrily. "He's mine and you're not allowed to-"

Her words were cut short when her ice blast ended up impacting dangerously close to the proximity mines surrounding Noire. Having been momentarily forgotten about until now, the bound Tsundere quickly reminded everyone of her presence again as she unleashed her verbal wrath upon the pink-haired loli.

"YOU LITTLE BRAT! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME KILLED?!"

Ram at least had the decency to look a bit embarrassed about her mistake as she gave a small apologetic wave. Of course, this did nothing to appease the pissed off CPU as she continued to give a furious rant that could have made Histoire proud.

Taking this opportunity to regroup and rethink his strategy, Sync warped over next to the twins. Realizing that it was far too risky to continue their battle near the proximity mines, he decided to relocate to a safer distance before resuming the fight.

"Hold on tight," he told his teammates. Ram and Rom quickly caught onto what he was planning as they flew closer to him. With a flash of green, the three of them were warped over to a relatively undamaged section of the courtyard about a hundred meters away from their starting position.

K-Sha immediately chased after them as expected leaving Noire to vent all of her rage by herself. At the same time, the older heroes finally managed to disentangle themselves from each other as they began to move towards the kids as well. Seeing his recovered allies, Sync gave a wide smirk as he turned to face the rapidly approaching Yandere.

"Looks like your trap card wasn't as powerful as you said it was," he pointed out. "No one was even remotely close to being destroyed."

To his confusion, K-Sha gave a small smirk of her own at this. "Destroying them was never my intention. I've spent enough time with that annoying purple-haired idiot to know how much plot armor all of you have."

Her smile widened as she suddenly pulled out a green-framed card with her free hand. " However, I knew your babysitters would try to protect you and end up being blown away at the very least. After that, all I needed to do was force you away from my dear Noire to avoid damaging her."

Sync's eyes widened as he realized he had unwittingly played right into K-Sha's hand. Before he could gather enough energy to warp his group away again, the Yandere unleashed her spell card.

"I activate the Seal of Konami!" she declared, remembering to properly call out her card's effect this time around. "With it's power, I'll receive a massive stat boost for the remainder of this battle! Also, the loser of this fight will forfeit their soul!"

"Say what now?"

Sync's question went unanswered as the card gave off a bright flash of light.

Dramatic music suddenly began to play as a dual-ringed golden circle with a rune-covered circumference appeared in the air above them. Before Sync or the twins could react, the giant circle descended onto the ground as it effectively trapped them and K-Sha inside its border. As the Yandere began to laugh like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, glowing golden lines began to stem from its edges and into the inside of the circle. Soon, a large golden 'K' similar in style to the pendant K-Sha was wearing was inscribed beneath their feet.

"I don't like where this is going," Rom said.

Her teammates shared similar thoughts as K-Sha began to glow with a bright golden aura. With one final evil cackle, her entire form was swallowed up in a blinding burst of light. By the time the heroes managed to regain their sight, K-Sha was hovering above them while fully equipped in her Gold Third form once more.

"Behold the power of my seal!" she announced, gesturing grandly to the circle with her arms. "Now I can-"

"Your background music is still on," Sync interrupted.

With an annoyed growl, K-Sha turned off her card's soundtrack with a snap of her fingers.

"As I was saying," she continued while glaring at the smiling boy, "now I can finally enjoy killing you all without any outside interference."

As if to highlight her point, Vert and C-Sha finally managed to reach their location as they tried to go through the glowing boundary of the circle. Their efforts turned out to be in vain however as a magical force bounced them back causing them to land on top of the rest of their approaching group.

"Gya-!"

"...Mmmph!"

Or more specifically, Nepgear and Neptune.

Big Nep ignored her younger counterpart being suffocated by an enormous pair of breasts once again (C-Sha being the offender this time) as she stopped in front of the circle and turned to her student.

"Can you teleport yourself outside?"

Sync shook his head with a disconcerted frown. "I can't. The edges of the seal are composed of a massive amount of her Gold Third energy. I can't teleport anything into or out of here due to all the interference. The most I can do right now is warp things around inside the circle."

K-Sha gave a satisfied chuckle at her enemy's distress. "Hmhmhm... It looks like you've finally realized that there's no escaping the Seal of Konami. The only way to escape is by lowering your enemy's HP to zero. Once that happens, the loser will have their soul drained away and spend the rest of eternity trapped within the Darkness Realm!"

"I thought your soul was used to feed a giant snake monster if it was stolen using a magic circle," Ram piped up. "That's how it worked in the anime I saw."

"You're thinking of a different card," K-Sha brushed off. "The point I'm trying to make is-"

"Hey, isn't it illegal to steal souls in this part of Gamindustri without a permit?" Sync suddenly asked.

Rom answered him before K-Sha could complain about being interrupted.

"You can capture spirits and souls in North Lastation without one. But only on specific hunting seasons."

Sync gave the blue-haired girl a slightly perturbed look. "Um... why do you know something like that?"

"Me and Ram used to go hunting for ghosts here a lot," she explained. "Capturing dead spirits with vacuum cleaners fell under the same law as stealing souls with magical cards."

"Enough!" K-Sha erupted. "You will all shut up and be intimidated by my card! Got it?!"

The three troublemakers simply glanced at the fuming Yandere for a second before looking back to each other.

"So, how much do these ghost-capturing vacuum cleaners go for in Lowee?" Sync asked.

K-Sha's patience made an audible snapping noise as she let loose the mother of all frustrated screams.

"THAT'S IT! EVERYONE DIES!"

* * *

Considering the amount of times Ram avoided certain death at the hands of her temperamental older sister, she found K-Sha's attempt to murder her nearly laughable.

"Nyah nyah! You can't catch me!"

Clad in a glowing green aura, the pink-haired girl swerved past another ax swing as she continued to make faces at the enraged Yandere. Thanks to Sync's synchro-whatever ability (she had barely paid any attention to his explanation about it other than the fact that it would make her more awesome), she was able to literally fly circles around her enemy as her boosted speed seemed high enough to even give Vert a run for her money.

"Stop moving so I can chop you to pieces!"

Ram just stuck out her tongue in answer to K-Sha's death threat. Asides from pissing off her opponent, this also gave her teammates an opening to launch their own attacks.

"Ice Coffin!"

With a frustrated growl, K-Sha narrowly avoided the giant icicle Rom summoned beneath her feet.

"Damn you!"

A green laser blade suddenly nicked the side of her face causing her energy shield to became momentarily visible as it protected her.

"Language," Sync chided with a smile, his form glowing with a pink aura from his link with Ram. (Despite his overall nonchalance about it, Ram could not help but personally feel that pink did not suit her servant very well.)

K-Sha immediately tried to smack aside the boy with a vicious backhand but proved to be far too slow to catch him in his current state. With a quick warp, he moved back to Rom's side as Ram unleashed her own attack at their enemy's exposed back.

"Wind Storm!"

While the green whirlwind failed to pierce through K-Sha's energy shield, it did manage to at least unbalance her as it sent her tumbling through the air for a bit.

Ram used this chance to regroup with her teammates as she gave an impatient huff.

"This is taking too long! How many times do we have to hit this dummy before she goes down?" Her eyes suddenly lit up as she remembered something. "Hey Sync! Didn't you say your ability also lets us use each other's special powers?"

"Technically yes but-"

"Awesome! Let's both teleport over and blow her up with an explosion spell right now!"

"Ram, I don't think that'll work," Rom responded. As she said this, she fired off a volley of ice spells to hold back the fully recovered K-Sha. "Big bro said we can't use each other's skills without a lot of practice first."

"Who needs practice? I'm awesome enough to master any new skills instantly!"

Ram turned her eyes in the direction of K-Sha as a look of intense concentration appeared on her face. This continued on for a few seconds with her face growing redder and redder the whole time.

"Um... Are you okay?" Sync eventually asked when it looked as if her head would explode.

Ram finally let out the breath she had been holding as the tension relaxed from her face.

"Gah! Why is your teleportation powers so stupidly hard to use?" she loudly complained.

"Don't let it get you down," Big Nep cheerfully encouraged. "It took me a while to figure out how to use it too."

Currently, she and the rest of the party outside were busy attacking the seal's barrier with their weapons in the hopes of breaking through. So far though they had been met with little success.

"Yeah, it definitely takes a while to figure out each other's skills," Sync agreed with his mentor. "I mean, I can't even begin to figure out how to utilize magic like the two of you can." To showcase this, he raised his hand and formed a tiny ice shard in his palm before the frozen crystal destabilized and vanished.

Ram gave a disapproving huff at his poor display. "You're doing it all wrong! You're focusing way too much energy at the start! And what's with that terrible stability control? Sheesh, I'm gonna have to teach you from the basics if I don't want you embarrassing me!"

Sync passed off her harsh criticism with a laugh. "Good thing I have a master of magic to help me out then."

Ram put on a smug look at his words, not realizing that his eyes had wandered over to Rom as he said this. As it was, the blue-haired girl was single-handedly holding back K-Sha with an vast array of elemental spells and highly-advanced explosive glyphs.

"So... do you have any other special abilities?" Ram asked her servant, completely oblivious to her sister's display of magical mastery. "Cause your Syncro-whatever ability really isn't helping out much here." She perked up as she suddenly realized something. "Wait a minute! You never showed us your transformation! This is the perfect chance for you to transform and show me how powerful you are in your HDD form!"

Neptune immediately stopped swinging her sword at the seal as she pointed her finger at Sync with a panicked look.

"NOOOO! He's going to turn into his Super Saiyan CPU Ultimate HDD True Overlord God form! Everyone look away before you fall in love with his illogically perfect image!"

Sync just gave a laugh to this while the rest of the party outside facepalmed.

"Sorry to disappoint you mini-Nep," he said, his smile widening at Neptune's outcry over her nickname. "But I don't think I'll be gaining a massive amount of muscles or a spiky hairdo anytime soon. Or really just about any other sort of transformation for that matter."

"Why not?" Ram asked while crossing her arms.

Sync looked noticeably uneasy about the topic but answered her all the same.

"Um... I'm not sure how to say this but... I can't transform. Like, at all."

"What?" Ram expressed in disbelief. "That doesn't make sense! You're a CPU Candidate! Of course you can transform!"

"Maybe you just don't know how to yet?" Nepgear supplied from outside the seal. "If that's the case, try to take a deep introspective look within yourself and discover a life-changing truth about what's been holding you back this whole time. That's how I was able to get my transformation powers for the first time in the anime."

"Oh, oh! You can also try to hate someone so much that you end up transforming!" Ram added. "That's how me and Rom did it!" Next to her, Rom quietly nodded her head in agreement.

A visible sweatdrop appeared on Sync's face at these suggestions.

"I highly doubt any of those methods would work for me. Besides, I was actually referring to the fact that I physically don't have enough shares to transform due to my... improper bonding with sis's crystal."

Ram noticed his eyes wandering over to Vert as he said this. The blonde goddess returned his gaze with a deep frown as if she noticed something about his words that the rest of them did not get. However, Ram did not care about any of that as she loudly interrupted her servant's weird staring contest with his sister.

"Bah! That doesn't matter! We just need to put you in a situation where you can transform with the power of the D-something machine!"

"Deus-ex-machina," Rom provided.

"Yeah that!" An idea suddenly popped into her head as she said this. With a wide grin she flew next to Sync and whispered something in his ear.

"Ram," he said after listening to her plan, "I highly doubt something like that is-"

"Trust me! My idea's completely idiot-proof!"

"Fool-proof," Rom amended.

"That too!"

Sync stayed silent as he seemed to seriously consider Ram's idea. After what seemed like forever to her, he finally answered with a smile and shrug.

"Eh, why not? At the very least, it'll be worth it to see everyone's reactions."

The entire world seemed to shiver in fear as Ram gave a diabolical laugh.

* * *

Vert watched with growing trepidation as the pink-haired girl moved forward to enact whatever nefarious plan she had in mind. Seeing as how the rambunctious rascal's ideas usually tended to range from city-wide-devastation to potentially-world-ending-catastrophe (the infamous blue shell incident came back to mind), Vert had good cause to be worried. Add in the fact that the boy had actually endorsed the plan as well and the whole thing practically screamed 'incoming apocalypse' as if Uzume was shouting it out of her megaphone.

Unaware of the fear radiating from her audience, Ram boldly stepped between K-Sha and Rom's background duel.

"Hey you!" Ram shouted out while pointing dramatically at the Yandere. "I want you to shoot me!"

Vert felt her mouth drop open in bewilderment as everyone else asides from Sync did the same. Even K-Sha put a momentary halt to her murderous rampage as she stared at the pink-haired girl as if she had just grown a second head.

"What?"

"You heard me! Shoot me with your gun!"

K-Sha remained silent as she seemed to consider whether or not this was some sort of bizarre trap. After a while, she seemed to make up her mind as she pulled out her Uzi with a shrug. Without any fanfare or warning, she fired her gun directly at the pink-haired girl.

"AHHHHHH! I've been hit!" Ram declared dramatically while clutching her chest, despite the fact that all of the bullets had bounced harmlessly off her protective layer of share energy. As she floated down towards the ground, Sync ran up to catch her.

"NO! RAM!"

Tears began to appear in his eyes as he held her close to his chest.

"I'm... sorry... Sync," Ram coughed out as she lay in his arms. "It looks like... I'll have to... say goodbye now."

"No! You can't leave me like this!"

The pink-haired girl gave another dying cough. "Don't... cry. Just promise me... that you'll... look after... Rom for me. And... remember that I was... the most awesome... CPU Candidate... ever... Goodbye... my love. Bleh."

And with that, the world's most awesome CPU Candidate (subjectively speaking) breathed her last and fell limp in his arms.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A very long and very awkward silence fell over the area before Ram peeked open her right eye.

"Psst. Any changes yet?"

Sync's tears magically vanished as he looked down at himself to see if he had gotten a bunch of fancy new processors yet.

"Nope," he replied, reverting back to his usual cheerfulness. "Nothing happening."

Ram opened both her eyes as she snapped her fingers. "Drats. And I was so sure it would work."

Sync just gave a small laugh as he let Ram get up from his arms.

"Ah, well. It was worth a shot anyways." He turned to face the other twin as he got up as well. "Can you lock up K-Sha for a bit? I want us to have a bit of time for a strategy meeting before we start the fight again."

Rom quickly recovered from the soap opera she had just watched as she nodded her head. Before the Yandere could do anything, a large dome of ice materialized around her and trapped her inside.

"What... was all that just now?" C-Sha asked as the kids assembled near them. Next to her, Vert and the rest of the party outside simply stared with white-circle eyes as they all seemed at a loss as to how they should react to the massive amount of cheese they had just witnessed.

"Oh, the guy character always gets some awesome new powers when someone close to him dies in Blanc's books," Ram explained. "I thought we could do the same thing here and get Sync to transform."

"Guess it just wasn't fated to be," Sync laughed off as his audience simply continued to stare. With a wide grin, he turned to directly address his dumbfounded sister. "So how was my acting sis? Think it was good enough to warrant an eight out of ten?"

Before she could answer, a tiny crack appeared in the thick ice dome that K-Sha was trapped in. As everyone turned to watch, a small section of it's front broke apart as a silver ax hacked through it.

"Here's K-Sha!" the Yandere yelled, peeking out through the crack she had made.

"Okay, new plan," Sync said as K-Sha pulled back her weapon for another swing. "Let's deal with the crazy Yandere first before considering a career in theater."

With that said, he pulled out two cans of Nep Bull and handed them to the twins.

"We might as well heal up while we can," he told them. "As for our plan, we'll-"

He was interrupted by a loud fanfare that played as soon as the two girls took his healing items.

 **Lily Rank Up!**

 **Sync  
** **10 - 10  
** **Ram**

 **Sync  
** **10 - 10  
** **Rom**

The heroes all stared up at the giant floating text-boxes in surprise.

"We're already at rank 10?" Sync eventually asked, completely ignoring the sounds of K-Sha hacking her way through the ice. "How's that possible? These things take forever to grind!"

"That's not really surprising," Ram proclaimed. "You're our future husband so of course we get a Lily Rank boost with you."

Vert gave her obligatory choking noise to that.

"We also both had discs with a Lily Rank boosting chip equipped," Rom added in.

"Oh, okay. That makes way more-"

Sync's words were interrupted when the pink-colored aura around him flickered.

"What in the-?"

As the party watched in surprise, Rom became shrouded in the same green aura that her sister was in as well. At the same time, the aura around Sync began to fluctuate between the pink and blue colors of the Lowee CPU Candidates.

"Big bro?" Rom asked. "Didn't you say you could only Synchronize with one of us at a time?"

Sync looked extremely confused by all of this as well.

"That's how it should be but-"

His words trailed off as the aura of energy around all three of them began to move away from their bodies. Before everyone's shocked eyes, the multi-colored lights gathered together in front of Sync before transforming into a cyan-colored share crystal.

"That's..." Vert breathed out.

"Oh no! He's going to-!"

Nepgear quickly covered her sister's mouth with her hand to prevent her from ruining the moment.

Time dragged on as everyone waited for Sync to make some kind of move. For some odd reason though, he seemed to be in a state of complete shock as he remained frozen in place. The only movement was that of his eyes as he momentarily glanced over at Vert.

The Leanbox CPU was fairly certain she was the only one to notice it, but the boy's expression momentarily turned into a worried look. The same worried look that he had worn when she had stopped (publicly) rejecting him as her brother.

Their eye-contact lasted for less than a second though before the sound of K-Sha breaking a particularly large chunk of her ice prison drew both their attentions away. With the same uneasy look on his face, Sync glanced back and forth between the share crystal and the ax crazy Yandere chopping her way towards him.

"This... doesn't make any sense," he muttered out, still refusing to grab hold of the glowing crystal.

"What are you waiting for?" Ram suddenly shouted out. "Hurry up and transform already so we can kick some butt together!"

Her words seemed to break him out of his reverie as he slowly looked over at the twins. The encouraging pair of smiles they gave him seemed to finally settle whatever mental debate he was having as he let out a small sigh.

"Guess I have no choice then."

His smile slowly returned as he raised his left hand to hold up the share crystal. "Let's show everyone what happens when you mess with the three of us!"

The twins gave him a thumbs-up as he brought the cyan-colored crystal to his chest.

"Synchronized Share Divinity activate!"

* * *

The first thing Rom noticed as the light faded away from Sync was his slightly older appearance. The most obvious indicator of this was his height as he now stood closer to Nepgear rather than Uni like before. His face, while still looking relatively young, also had a more refined and sharper look that befitted his older age. As for his hair, it now sported a style very similar to White Heart's minus the long side bangs. Strangely enough though, his hair color was also the same sky-blue shade as the Lowee CPU's rather than the expected green.

Of course, all the questions brought about by this was temporarily put on hold as Rom took a look at his new attire. Instead of a plug suit, he wore a slightly larger variant of the white shirt and long black pants that he wore in his human form (much to the relief of Rom; something about seeing men in tights rubbed her the wrong way). Equipped over his ordinary clothes though was a sleek set of plate armor made of what appeared to be blue ice. The gauntlets and boots he wore – which were in the same designs as the four CPUs' – were also made of this strange material as well. The most noticeable change to his appearance however, was the calf-length trench coat that he wore over his armor. Unlike his previous attire, this one was bluish-green in color and had a high collar that hid the sides of his face. Rounding out all of this was a blue visored cap with the Leanbox emblem printed on its front that he wore over his messy blue hair.

As Rom (along with everyone else) watched him, the newly transformed Sync looked down at his new form with his power-symbol lit eyes. One thing that quickly became clear from his flat expression was that his previous cheerfulness had disappeared completely. Instead, a cold sense of indifference seemed to radiate off of him. However, there was something rather distinct about his aura that immediately caught Rom's attention. Though his outer nonchalance made it hard to tell, a very familiar sense of rage and fury emanated from within him. Having felt the exact same unsettling feeling every time her older sister chased after her with her hammer, Rom could not help but give a slight shiver in fear.

"B...Big bro?" she eventually managed to ask, hoping that his hidden rage would not show itself against her.

To her relief, the muted anger that she sensed from him drastically lowered as he looked down at her.

"It's me," he assured her in a slightly deeper yet still not fully mature voice.

Realizing that his attitude towards her had not changed despite his personality shift, she let out a large sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness," she breathed out. "I... I was worried you'd become like big sis when you transformed."

Sync let out an amused snort as he raised his armored hand and inspected it. "I'm linked with the Lowee Sharicite right now. Of course there's going to be some similarities between me and Blanc."

This finally seemed to break the rest of the gathered heroes out of their stupor as Vert spoke up in a shocked voice.

"You... You're connected to Lowee's main share crystal right now?"

The slight hint of warmth that had appeared in his voice while talking to Rom immediately disappeared as he answered his sister in a completely indifferent tone.

"Superficially. I'm merely using some of their shares to maintain this form. Any other share expenditures such as skill usage are sure to come out of our own nation's reserves."

"Hax!" Neptune cried, using the boy's former words against him. "How is stealing shares from other nations to transform fair?! I knew you were a Gary-Stu!"

Sync did not bother to say a word as he instead lowered his hand and slowly turned his gaze towards the purple-haired girl. The temperature in the surrounding area seemed to drop drastically as the boy's face became covered in shadows while his left eye began to take on an ominously familiar red glow.

"Nepu! He's turned into a mini-Blanc! Everyone take cover behind Nep Jr. before he explodes!"

"What the goodness?! Neptune, you're going to stretch out my shirt if you keep clinging to my back like that!"

Ignoring the purple-haired comedy duo, Ram turned to face Sync with an impressed look.

"Just what I'd expect from my servant! You look awesome! Well, not as awesome as me but that goes without saying." Her expression slowly fell as she realized something. "Oh... but Blanc's not going to be too happy when she finds out we let you use some of our shares. She's probably going to try and hammer our heads in for this."

The deadly red glow over Sync's eye as well as his freezing aura immediately disappeared as he turned his gaze over to Ram.

"She can't exactly hold you or Rom responsible for this," he said in a noticeably gentler voice. "Neither of you knew this would happen when I transformed. In fact, even I didn't know such a thing was possible until now. If she still gets mad, just tell her that I'll run a few guild quests for her later to make up for the shares."

Ram quickly cheered back up. "So you're going to take the blame for us? Woohoo! Thanks! You're the coolest and bestest servant ever!"

Sync gave an amused snort to this as the barest hint of a smile appeared on his stoic face.

Right at that moment, the ice dome before them shattered into pieces as a heavily breathing K-Sha made her way forward with her supernatural ax in hand.

"Finally! Now I'm going to-" Her rant was cut short as she laid eyes on the blue-coated figure. "What in the-? Who the hell are you? And how did you get through my seal?"

An intense wave of cold fury began to radiate out of Sync again as he glared at the Yandere. To her credit, K-Sha did not seem to be intimidated by any of this as she merely narrowed her own visible eye at him.

"So the little green pest decided to play dress-up," she noted, finally realizing who he actually was. She readjusted her grip on her ax as she gave a twisted smile. "Not that it matters much. Transformed or not, I'll still chop you into pieces."

Sync continued to glare at her for a brief moment before he suddenly tilted his head a bit in mild surprise.

"Hm. Seems I don't have access to my spatial abilities in this form," he muttered before giving another pause. "And no flight processors either. Good grief..."

He quickly seemed to readjust his plans as he looked over at the twins.

"Ram, Rom. Pin her down with your spells when you get the chance. I'll draw her attention so hang back until you can make a clear shot. After that, just leave the rest to me."

Ram immediately gave an affirmative nod. "You got it!"

"Um... I... I'll do my best!" Rom said, mustering up as much confidence as she could.

With a short nod to his teammates, Sync charged forward with enough force to crack the concrete he had been standing on.

Even with his boosted stats though, K-Sha seemed to have the upper hand in the speed department as she hurled her ax directly at her oncoming foe. To everyone's surprise, Sync did not bother dodging as he simply raised up his arms defensively. Like some kind of unstoppable wrecking ball, he plowed through the ax as the blade shattered against his frozen gauntlets.

Realizing her opponent was a lot sturdier than before, K-Sha quickly took to the skies as she put some distance between herself and the rapidly approaching boy.

"Die you little brat!"

Summoning her dual Uzis back to her hands, she opened fire against her foe.

Sync rolled his eyes at this as he simply let the bullets bounce off his energy field while continuing to make a beeline towards the Yandere.

"Tch. Fine! Let's see how you deal against this!"

K-Sha put away her guns as she pulled out a brown leather whip with a metal tip at its end. With a maniacal laugh, she swung down her new weapon towards Sync.

There was a literal earth-shattering explosion as the whip impacted with its target. One moment the tip of the weapon seemed to make contact with Sync and the next the entire area was obscured by a giant cloud of debris as even the ground beneath him was utterly vaporized by the force of the blast.

"Sync!"

"Big bro!"

Ram and Rom's shouts were drowned out by K-Sha's maniacal laughter as she took in the destruction before her.

"Did you really think you could stand up to me?" the Yandere gloated. "Nothing can overcome the power of my love!"

Oddly enough, the two Neptunes both seemed completely nonchalant about the situation as they looked at the giant debris cloud with bemused looks.

"I'll bet you a thousand Credits that he'll jump out of the cloud and hit K-Sha with a surprise attack," Neptune said.

"Two thousand that he'll wait to show that he's completely unscathed before making his move," Big Nep raised.

The winner of this strange bet soon became clear as a sudden gust of wind swept aside the dust cloud to reveal a very pissed off yet completely unharmed Sync. While Neptune handed her older self her winnings with a grumble, K-Sha looked down at the boy with wide eyes.

"What?! Even Death was defeated with this weapon! How are you-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Sync grabbed onto the end of her whip and yanked down on it with his immense newfound strength.

"-GAK!"

Caught completely off-guard, K-Sha was dragged towards the ground at the speed of a falling meteor. Sync barely had time to move out of the way himself as the plummeting Yandere narrowly missed him and crashed straight into the ground with a resounding boom.

As expected though, the fall did little more than to faze K-Sha as her Gold Third energy absorbed most of the impact. By the time Sync brushed aside the dust cloud that surrounded them, she was already on her feet and glaring hatefully at her enemy.

"Don't get cocky brat. I still-"

"E-Force Blizzard!"

Whatever evil monologue she had prepared was cut short as her legs were suddenly encased in a giant block of ice. Looking up in surprise, K-Sha found the twins looking down imperiously at her with their staffs held in front of them.

"Now Sync!" Ram yelled.

The Yandere barely had time to look back down before the blue-coated figure was upon her.

"Nerf this!"

With a ferocious yell, he summoned an orange foam bat to his hand before striking her in the stomach with it. The force of the swing ended up shattering the ice at her feet as she was sent flying through the air before eventually smashing into the border of her own seal several meters away. With a resounding thud, her body fell to the ground in a heap.

"Yes!" Ram cheered. "We did it! We-"

Her celebrations turned out to be rather premature though as K-Sha gave a loud groan before unsteadily getting back to her feet.

"You... You think this is over?" she spat out while breathing heavily. "It'll take more than a single lucky hit to-"

"You've already lost," Sync interrupted.

"What?"

K-Sha suddenly froze as her eye widened in surprise. In an instant, all of her movements, even her breathing, slowed down to a crawl as it looked as if all her energy had been sapped away. Moving at a snail's pace, she fell down to her knees as she shakily looked down at herself with a horrified look.

"You..." she eventually said, her speech sounding drawn out and weak. "What... did... you... do?"

With a snort, Sync held out the orange foam bat that he had hit her with.

"I nerfed you," he explained coldly. "One hit from my Nerf Bat and you can kiss your stats goodbye. Normally, hitting someone with it would have been nearly impossible due to its terrible accuracy but thanks to Ram and Rom that became a non-issue."

"Heh heh. We're awesome like that," Ram chimed in with a smug look.

With even her MOV stat lowered to a near zero, the only thing K-Sha could do was glare at them while trying to hold up her weakened body.

"This... isn't... over."

"It is," Sync assured. "In your current state, I reckon even a child could flick you to defeat."

"I'll... kill..."

K-Sha froze as an ominous shadow suddenly appeared over her. With an ever growing sense of dread, she slowly looked to her side to find Rom floating above her with her left hand raised threateningly.

"You've been a bad girl," the blue-haired girl scolded. "It's time you got a time-out."

With that she brought down a powerful chop onto K-Sha's head.

A massive explosion occurred at the contact as the Yandere was smashed into the ground with enough force to create a crater several meters deep. Realizing too late that Sync had not been exaggerating about how low K-Sha's stats had become, Rom stared with wide-eyes as she took in the damage her attack had just caused.

"Oops..."

After a few seconds, Ram and Sync managed to recover from their surprise as they moved over to the crater and cautiously peered down it. At its bottom, they spotted K-Sha who was somehow still in one piece. As they watched, she feebly tried to get back up again before finally slumping down into unconsciousness as her transformation petered out.

"I'm sorry," Rom apologized as she flew over to her two teammates. "I didn't mean to hurt her so bad."

"Nah, you did good," Ram quickly said, looking more than a tiny bit unnerved by her sister's brutal finisher. Next to her, Sync quietly nodded his head in agreement as well.

Rom was just about to continue apologizing when the golden circle they were all trapped in suddenly began shrinking. As the trio watched, the seal passed right through them as it homed in on it's master's body. Once it's victim was completely ensnared at its center, the seal gave off a bright golden glow as K-Sha opened her eyes and began to scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

A giant column of golden light shot up from the center of the circle and into the night sky before it quickly faded from view. With its work done, the seal disappeared as well leaving K-Sha's now lifeless body to slump forward onto the ground with a muffled thud.

Before the stunned trio could move, a lone trading card fluttered down from the sky towards them. Snatching it out of the air, Sync flipped it over to find a picture of a terrified-looking K-Sha drawn on its front.

The silence dragged on as the three of them looked back and forth between K-Sha's body and her soul which was apparently trapped within the piece of cardboard. After a long while, Ram eventually voiced what the three of them were all thinking.

"So... how much do you think we can sell this card for on Amazoo?"

* * *

Vert was still reeling from... well, just about everything that had happened lately, when Sync and the twins made their way over to them.

"Ha ha! Told ya we'd win!" Ram declared proudly to her stunned audience.

While the young girl began to celebrate her victory, Sync quietly deactivated his transformation. To Vert's relief, he did not end up collapsing from exhaustion (for once) as he instead just clutched his head as if he was suffering from a serious migraine.

"Oough... how do you people deal with switching between different personalities so easily?" he complained. "My head feels like it's just been trampled by a bunch of angry horse-birds."

"Oh, you get used to it," Nepgear told him brightly.

He lifted his hand to raise an eyebrow at her. "Don't you stay practically the same when you transform?"

"I do but I remember Neptune throwing up all over the place whenever she transformed way back in the day. There was even one time when-"

"STOP!" Neptune panicked. "Don't tell the harem lord anything that he can use to blackmail me! I don't want to have to dance naked in a vat of pudding for his amusement!"

Sync gave a small chuckle to this before clutching his head again with a groan.

"Forget naked pudding dances, somebody just give me an aspirin."

"Here, big bro," Rom said after she and Ram turned off their transformations as well. "Let me help."

A quick recovery spell later and Sync was back to his usual cheery self.

"Whew. Thanks Rom. You're a real lifesaver." He gave her a head pat as he said this which she happily responded to with an adorable smile. Obviously, Vert felt an intense flare of jealousy at this but managed to keep herself in check.

Before anyone else could do anything, Big Nep swooped in to crush Sync in an enormous bear hug.

"I knew you could do it! There was no way a dumb Yandere was ever going to beat my adorable little teddy bear!"

"Ms. Neptune... can't... breathe..."

Meanwhile, C-Sha went over to embrace the twins as well.

"I'm glad you're both alright," she said while Ram and Rom happily returned her hug. "I was so worried about you two during the whole fight."

"Obviously," one of the Hunters said as he and his group walked over to them. "I mean, Lady Blanc threatened to break all of our legs and then feed us to a pack of rusty Chain Chomps if either of her sisters were harmed during this mission."

C-Sha gave a slight cough to this. "Well, yes. There's that too. But I would have still been worried for you two even without Blanny's threat of horribly maiming me."

Off to the side, Nepgear and Vert silently watched all of this while Neptune ran off to try and separate her older self from her cuddle toy once again.

"Aren't you going to check up on Sync as well?" Nepgear asked after a while.

Vert glanced over at the boy as Neptune grabbed hold of his legs and began trying to pull him away while her older self continued to firmly hold his head to her chest in a death grip.

"I believe I'll wait until your sisters are done with him," Vert replied flatly.

Truthfully though, she was rather dreading having to personally confront the boy again. Now that the entire fiasco had been finally dealt with, she found herself rather unsure as to how to act towards him. Her goal of keeping him alive remained unchanged but without the fans/crazy Yandere threat anymore, her sudden desire to protect him would be a great deal more difficult to explain. And considering her actual reason for all of this, there was no way she could just tell him the truth about it either.

Luckily for her, she was spared from having to come up with an immediate solution to her problem as a familiar angry shout came from the distance.

"HEY! AREN'T YOU FORGETTING ABOUT SOMEONE?!"

Everyone turned towards the direction of the outburst before realizing they had all forgotten about Noire. Using this opportunity to warp away from the clutches of the two Neptunes, Sync reappeared a few meters away from the two before using his power again to teleport the twin-tailed Tsundere over to the rest of them. Apparently, K-Sha's defeat had deactivated both the mines as well as her restraining device as the unbound Lastation CPU stumbled onto the ground in front of him.

"If you had dropped me on my face again I would have stabbed you," Noire growled out as she steadied herself.

Sync gave an uneasy laugh to this while the rest of the group gathered around them.

"Are you okay?" Nepgear asked with a concerned face.

The Lastation CPU answered her with a scowl. "I've been tied up on the ground by a bunch of electrified wires this whole entire time. What do you think?"

"No need to be so snappy, Noire," Neptune scolded. "See, this type of attitude is the reason you don't have any-"

"One more word and I will end you."

As Neptune wisely chose to shut up, Rom came up to heal the injured CPU.

"Thanks," Noire said gratefully, her mood improving a bit as her soreness began to disappear.

After waiting for Rom to finish with her treatment, Nepgear spoke up again.

"By the way, what are we going to do with K-Sha? We can't just leave her lying there."

Noire's face darkened again as she gave an ominous growl. "Oh, I have some ideas on what to do with her..."

C-Sha quickly decided to jump in before the Lastation CPU did anything drastic. "Leave her to me. I'm pretty sure the twins messed up her head with their attempted brainwashing so we'll need to fix that up first. Luckily I know a famous doctor in Lowee who can prescribe the needed antipsychotics to deal with her issues. If that doesn't work, I can always just ask Blanc to beat her over the head with her hammer until she returns to normal."

"Why not just take her to a therapist?" Sync asked.

Nepgear gave a cough to this. "I'm pretty sure the last remaining therapist in Gamindustri ended up going crazy several decades ago..."

"Poor man thought he was a duck after all the stories he was forced to listen to," C-Sha said while shaking her head sadly.

Sync took all of this in with a raised eyebrow.

"...that explains a lot," he muttered before turning to face C-Sha again. "Anyways, what about K-Sha's soul?"

"It'll automatically return back to her in a few days," she explained. "That's usually how these things work. Hopefully I'll be able to fix up her brain by then."

Vert noticed Ram making a disappointed sound in the background but chose not to question it.

"So..." Big Nep eventually said after a brief silence. "That's it right? We've finally reached the happy ending?"

Noire gave a scoff to this. "Happy ending? Do you realize just how badly my nation was damaged by this entire disaster? It's going to take a fortune to rebuild everything! And let's not even get started on all the paperwork I'll have to deal with as well!"

"Oh, you won't need to worry about any of that," Sync suddenly said, a wide smile appearing on his face. "I've been saving this for this exact occasion."

Saying this, he pulled out a blood-red oval stone from his coat pocket.

"Hey, it's the Philosopher's Stone!" Big Nep said in recognition. "I forgot I even gave that to you. I'm rather surprised you didn't use it during the battle though."

Sync answered with a shrug. "It wouldn't have worked against K-Sha due to her Gold Third energy and it would have just been a waste to use it against the fans. I figured it'd be more useful to use it to deal with all the collateral damage instead."

"Wait," Nepgear interjected. "There's no way the stone still has enough energy left to do that. I'm fairly certain it was already running low when we used it to fix up the town that the doomsday dragon destroyed."

"Oh, yeah," Big Nep said. "I almost forgot about that giant lizard. Hm. I wonder if Uzume's managed to catch up to it by now?"

Sync passed off his mentor's comment with a small chuckle before addressing Nepgear.

"I should be able to make it work if I charge up the stone with my own share energy. Technically, this is just a heavily transmuted share crystal so it's theoretically possible."

"Wait, you made that thing out of shares?" Vert interrupted before Nepgear could speak up.

Sync gave her a bemused look. "A heavily altered version of it but yes. What, did you actually think we sacrificed an entire city to make this?"

Vert gave a quick glance at their resident mad scientist but said nothing.

"Sync, you shouldn't do this," Nepgear warned. "The amount of energy it would take to fix an entire nation is-"

The boy cut her off before she could finish. "It's fine. Besides, none of this would have happened in the first if I didn't cause the fans to riot. This is the least I can do to make up for it."

Before anyone could stop him, he raised up the stone and began to channel his energy into it.

"Sync!" Vert shouted out in a panic as similar cries rang out around her.

"W...Wait you idiot!" Noire yelled out with an extremely worried look on her face. "This isn't what I-!"

Her words were drowned out as an enormous wave of green energy exploded out of the stone. As everyone watched with wide eyes, the wave swept out across the courtyard causing all the damage it had sustained to fix itself as if time was reversing. Judging from how K-Sha's body was magically lifted out of the crater before it filled itself back up, it seemed there was no need to worry about any of the civilians getting harmed in the reconstruction process either. In the blink of an eye, the entire courtyard was put back together while the city outside was seen being rapidly repaired as well. The green wave had already disappeared past the horizon by this point but it was safe to assume that it would continue on until it had covered all of Lastation.

Snapping out of her surprise, Vert quickly turned back around to Sync as the rest of the group did the same.

A large crack appeared in the stone he was holding before it shattered completely into a thousand glittering shards. With a smile still on his face, he slowly lowered his arm and looked down to face them.

"Heh. I don't see why all of you were so-"

His last word never left his mouth as he suddenly fell backwards like a puppet with its strings cut. Before he could hit the ground, however, a pair of hands quickly reached out to grab him.

It took a moment before Vert realized that it was her own hands that were holding him up.

"Sis?" Sync called out weakly, surprise evident in his voice.

Vert was all too aware of everyone's eyes on her but for once she found that she did not care.

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "I've got you."

He continued to look confused as he looked up at her face with a searching gaze.

"You... care..." he eventually breathed out. To her surprise, he let out a faint laugh to this before giving a soft sigh. "How... troublesome..."

The last of his energy seemed to leave him at this point as he closed his eyes with a small smile still on his lips.

"Sync!"

"Big bro!"

Ram and Rom quickly ran up to the boy with Big Nep and Nepgear following close behind. As soon as she reached him, Rom began trying to revive him with one of her healing spells but was met with no luck. Vert, meanwhile, focused in on her Sharicite to check on his connection. After a few tense minutes, she let out a relieved sigh.

"I can still sense him through my crystal. He's merely asleep."

Everyone gathered let out a collective breath of relief to this. Getting up from next to Sync, Rom looked over to Vert with a continued worried look.

"Will big bro really be okay?" she asked.

"He'll be fine," Vert answered confidently. After a brief hesitation, she reached out to comfort the girl with a head pat of her own. Surprisingly, Rom did not move away from her like she usually did as she quietly accepted it with a small smile.

"Freaking idiot," Noire huffed from behind them while obviously trying to hide her own worry. "He didn't need to nearly kill himself for something like this. He could have just worked for me until he had enough Credits to pay me back for all the damages instead."

"You just wanted another unpaid secretary that would do your every bidding, didn't you?" Neptune asked with a knowing grin.

"Oh, shut up! And I'll have you know that my alternate self paid that secretary guy at least three times the normal salary rate!"

Leaving the two to continue on with their usual squabble, Vert carefully moved Sync onto her back so that she was carrying him in a piggyback style. While he felt lighter than she had expected, his form felt solid enough that she was able to to put aside her fears of him fading away.

"Well, I'm glad everything turned out alright," C-Sha said after a brief silence. "But how exactly are all of us going to get back home? Not all of us can fly and even those who can are probably too tired to get all the way back to their respective Basilicoms."

"Maybe we can just spend the night at a local hotel?" Neptune suggested.

Noire scoffed at this. "None of the hotels would be open right now idiot. Everyone in this city would either be in an emergency shelter or fast asleep because of the brainwashing. Speaking of which, I'll need to help relocate my citizens and soldiers before heading back. Not to mention dealing with all the fuel-less transport copters that K-Sha parked in the city after landing her army here. Ugh. This is going to take all night to get sorted out."

"It's too bad Sync's knocked out," Nepgear said as she gave her unconscious lab partner a sad glance. "He could have just teleported all of us back home."

C-Sha and the Hunters gave an involuntary shudder as they remembered the last time the boy had tried to warp them across an extremely long distance.

"No, I think we're better off finding a different solution," the buxom fighter promptly said. "Though I admit, it would have been nice having a reliable and simple way of warping back home. It's too bad we don't have anything like that."

Right at that moment, a loud yawn sounded off from Big Nep's pocket.

" _Ah, that was a great nap,"_ Croire's muffled voice said from within the Nep-Note. _"So, what did I miss?"_

* * *

It was nearly morning by the time Noire had finished dealing with all of the issues in North Lastation and called back Big Nep for a warp back home. Luckily for her, the Planeptune crew had apparently decided to hold a celebratory all-night pudding party back at their own Basilicom which meant that Big Nep had still been awake to pick up her phone. The older Neptune had been quick to reply as she promptly warped over, dropped off Noire in front of the Lastation Basilicom, and returned back to her party with a cheerful wave.

Giving a loud yawn that she was too tired to hide, Noire dragged herself into the building and towards her room. Looking around as she passed, she saw that the boy's repair job had clearly done its job as not a single door or wall was broken despite the invasion that had no doubt occurred there. Seeing all of this made her give a small sigh as she hoped that the boy was doing alright. Not that she was worried about him or anything though. She merely did not want to deal with the political fallout that would result if he had died. Obviously, this was the only reason she would have for wondering about his welfare... Maybe.

Her Tsundere thoughts were interrupted when she saw that the door to Uni's room was slightly ajar. Peeking into the darkened room, she was both surprised and relieved to see that her sister had made it back sometime before her and was currently fast asleep. Deciding not to wake her, Noire quietly shut the door and continued on her way.

After what seemed like forever to her, the sight of her room greeted her once again as she let out a large breath of relief.

"I'm home," she called out to no one in particular as she turned on the lights.

To her surprise, a white fluffy shape suddenly jumped onto her bed in response.

"Meow."

"Oh, it's you Blanc," Noire said, smiling down at the cat she had adopted way back during the original Gold Third crisis. "I'm glad you managed to make it through the fan invasion safely."

Blanc the cat gave a short stretch before looking back up at her.

"Meow." (How dare you abandon your master when those filthy peasants dared to invade _my_ kingdom?!)

Despite her claims of being able to do so, Noire did not in fact have the ability to understand what her cat was actually saying. As such, she simply gave a giggle at the deceptively cute sound her feline had made.

"Heh heh. Sorry about forgetting you in all this craziness. I was so preoccupied that I even forgot about Uni for a while."

"Meow." (You think you can simply apologize your way out of this?! I will tear out your heart and feast upon it for this transgression! And then I'll turn your tiny clone into my personal scratching post for good measure!)

Noire just gave another ignorant smile at her cat before walking over to her desk.

"Are you hungry, Blanc?" she asked, opening up her drawer and pulling out a bag of kitty treats. "Hopefully you managed to sneak something to eat from the kitchens while I was gone."

"Meow." (You dare imply that I filled myself with scraps like some common beggar?! No, you fool. I devoured the peasants that dared lay hands on my sacred throne cushion! As for their remains, they were thrown to my feral sisters in the back alleys!)

"Here you go Blanc," the Lastation CPU said, handing over one of the fish-shaped treats to her cat.

The suspicious feline sniffed at it for a bit before taking a bite.

"Meow." (Hmph! Your sacrificial offering has pleased me. I shall deign to let you live for a little while longer.)

Noire gave another giggle as she put away the bag and watched her pet nibble away at the treat with a smile.

"You know, sometimes I think you're the only true friend I have Blanc."

"Meow." (Pet me, slave.)

* * *

Blanc (the CPU) gave a loud yawn as she put down her mug of coffee onto her desk and turned on her computer. While it had been nearly noon by the time she had woken up, she was still rather tired as she had been forced to stay up late into the night after C-Sha, the twins, and the Hunters had warped into her room carrying an unconscious K-Sha with them. The group had been rather tired themselves though and had chosen to give her an abridged (yet still lengthy) version of what had occurred before splitting off to their respective beds. Of course, C-Sha had spent a few extra minutes locking up K-Sha's soulless body into a spare broom closet before leaving herself.

Once her computer had finally booted up, Blanc brought up the local news feed to see if she could figure out the specifics of what had occurred in Lastation. Unfortunately, none of the articles went into much detail other than the fact that the riot in Lastation had been resolved. Disappointed but not surprised, she clicked over to the Lastation news feed while raising her mug of coffee and taking a sip.

She promptly spat her drink back out when she saw the main headline on the page.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Displayed proudly on her coffee-splattered screen were two simple sentences:

 **Ram and Rom Engaged to Mysterious Blond Shota  
** **Lastation's Newest #1 Favorite Couple**

* * *

Uni woke up in her room with perhaps the biggest headache she had ever had in her entire life. Actually, scratch that. The second biggest headache ever. Nothing was ever going to top the morning after the karaoke bar incident involving 5pb., a Nepgeardam, a time-traveling princess, a talking kangaroo, and forty cans of 'root beer'. The Lastation CPU Candidate could feel her head throb even more painfully just at the mere memory of it.

With a loud groan, Uni sat up from her bed with bleary eyes. The last thing she remembered clearly was splitting up with B-Sha and Steamax (who B-Sha had put back together after the little doujinshi incident). Uni had decided to head directly back to Lastation to go find her sister while B-Sha had opted to help escort the civilians to the next Lowee city over to find help. As expected, Steamax had wanted to follow the CPU Candidate but Uni had managed to convince him otherwise by pointing out that he would not be able to keep up with her once she activated her HDD. Looking rather dejected - a remarkable feat considering his face was an unmoving metal mask – Steamax had reluctantly agreed to help B-Sha instead and parted ways with her.

After that, her memories became all fuzzy. The most she could recall was that she had flown all the way to a small town that was a few miles west of North Lastation and then... nothing. There was the vaguest recollection of feeling extremely warm and fuzzy for some reason but that was about it.

She clutched her head with her hand as she gave another groan. Trying to recall her scrambled memories was only making her head hurt even more. As far as she could tell, she had probably met up with Noire somewhere along the way and had made it back to their Basilicom before collapsing in her bed in exhaustion. She knew she was in her room at least thanks to the large window next to her which currently had its purple curtains pulled back to reveal the Basilicom's central garden. Considering the notable lack of crazed fans in the area, she guessed that her sister had somehow taken care of the entire riot as well. Not that surprising considering that Noire was one of the greatest CPUs ever after all. Of course, she only respected her sister up to a reasonable amount since acting crazily obsessed over her was just wrong.

Uni gave a frown at that odd line of thought before shaking her head. Deciding she needed some coffee to get herself fully woken up, Uni gave a large stretch and stepped off her bed...

...only to have her feet slip on an unexpected cylindrical object as she fell face-first into a sea of green.

"What the-? WHO FILLED MY ROOM WITH A BUNCH OF EMPTY SODA BOTTLES?!"

* * *

Vert's return to her Basilicom was a lot less chaotic than she had expected. Obviously, Chika had immediately gone into a frenzy upon seeing her but a group of odd people wearing Ran Pig masks managed to hold her back. Vert quickly guessed that these were the Ran Rans that Sync had mentioned before and had introduced herself to them (after pacifying Chika with a few kind words of course). As it turned out, the Ran Rans were more than happy to accept her as their boss as they even offered to take the boy to his room for her. Deciding he was in safe hands, she let them carry him away while she decided to deal with Chika.

Oddly enough, her Oracle accepted her order of not killing the boy for the time being without much complaint. She did mutter something about the kill not being as satisfying if he was not awake to witness it but Vert decided to let that one slide.

After that, she had gone to her room (which had been fully repaired during her absence) and immediately collapsed onto her bed without even bothering to change out of her clothes. By the time she got back up, the sun was high in the sky and the sounds of her workers rushing about in the halls could be heard outside.

"Ugh... someone turn off the sun," she mumbled out. "It's too bright in here."

When the sun refused to put itself out, she reluctantly sat up from her bed with a yawn and a grumble. After taking a moment to gather herself, she got up and automatically headed towards her desk to turn on her computer and log into her MMO.

She came to a halt as she neared her desk however as she found a large present box lying on top of it. Hoping that Chika had not bought her another set of lingerie to force her into, Vert cautiously reached forward and opened up the box.

Her mouth immediately dropped open in surprise as she found herself looking at a limited edition figure set featuring all the characters from one her favorite anime, _Naked Butler's Host Club_. With shaking hands, she carefully grabbed hold of the figure box and held it up reverently. Her expert Otaku eyes quickly confirmed that the set was authentic as she felt her heart skip a beat in pure joy. Just as she was about to start squealing like a teenage fangirl, she spotted a small card lying at the bottom of the present box. Putting her celebrations on hold for the moment, she picked up the card with her free hand and opened it up to read it.

 _Dear sis,_

 _If you're reading this then welcome back home. It's already been four days since you escaped from Planeptune so I told Ran Ran (not to be confused with Ran Ran; she's rather touchy about that) to just put this present on your desk the morning after your return. Hopefully that'll lower the odds of Chika intercepting this package and hiding it out of spite. Not that I'd really blame her for it though. I mean, I did accidentally change her hair color to neon orange the other night. Fun fact: Nep Bull mixed with Dogoo Jelly and orange juice makes a really effective hair dye._

 _In case it wasn't obvious, I got you these figures to replace the ones that got destroyed when I first got here. One of the Basilicom workers (forgot her name) told me the names of the ones that got crushed so I had a fairly easy time finding them online on Amazoo. It also looked like you were originally missing a few from the set so I decided to just get you the entire thing. As for the cost, Nepgear and I transmuted plenty of lead into gold during our Philosopher's Stone experiments so money wasn't much of an issue._

 _Anyways, I know you've been stressed lately due to my arrival but hopefully this gift manages to cheer you up a bit. The last thing I want is for you to permanently run away to become a cabbage farmer in Zero Dimension or something like that. While I can't guarantee that I won't cause more trouble for you in the future, I can at least promise not to drive you too far off the deep end. So, for what it's worth, I hope you stick around and continue being the sister-obsessed, Yaoi-loving, game-addicted CPU that you've always been before. Cause in the end, that's all that really matters to me._

 _From your #1 favorite person in the whole entire world (_ **:P** _),  
_ _Sync_

 _P.S.  
_ _I might have accidentally turned the toaster in the kitchen into an inter-dimensional transport device. We still haven't heard back from the last Basilicom worker who used it but I sent Ran Ran to look for him so I'm sure he'll be fine._

Vert felt her former giddiness fade away as she finished reading through his message. An unreadable expression fell across her face as her eyes slowly went back and forth between the card and the figure set he had gotten for her. An eternity seemed to pass by in silence until a faint smile suddenly appeared on her lips as she gave a tired sigh.

"You truly are a troublesome little child."


	16. Holiday Special

**Just a silly, non-canonical holiday extra. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Ch 16: The Apocalypse Before Nepmas**

Ram, Rom, and Sync stood in the middle of a large snowy field as they stared down at the unmoving figure before them. In the background, an unrecognizable mass of twisted metal continued to burn as the flames lit up the white expanse.

After a long while, the group's stunned silence was finally broken by Rom.

"We are in so much trouble..."

* * *

"YOU BRATS DID WHAT?!"

Ram winced as the force of her older sister's shout blew off both her and Rom's hat. Clearly, Blanc was taking the news a lot worse than she had thought.

"Let's try to be calm about this Blanc," Sync said in a placating tone. "This really isn't as big of a deal as you're making it out to be."

"HOW IS KILLING SANTA CLAUS NOT A BIG DEAL?!"

All of Lowee seemed to shake at the massive outburst. Even with her years of experience at seeing her older sister 'flip her shit' (as C-Sha often called it), Ram still could not help but take a step back in fear. Besides her, Rom and Sync did the same as they both wore identical worried looks on their faces.

"I... I'm p...pretty sure he's not d... dead," Rom eventually said. The poor girl flinched as Blanc turned her furious gaze on her but managed to continue speaking. "At... At least I don't think so. He started breathing again after I healed him a bit. He still wouldn't wake up though so we brought him with us to the Basilicom."

"In hindsight, maybe saying that we accidentally blew up Santa wasn't the best way of phrasing things," Sync muttered from the side.

Blanc looked very much like an active super-volcano that was mere seconds away from erupting and annihilating the entire planet. Luckily for Gamindustri though, the CPU seemed to rein in her apocalyptic anger at the last possible second as she instead took several deep breaths to calm herself.

"Tell me exactly what happened," Blanc growled out, looking very much like she was holding onto the very last thread of her patience and sanity.

Ram gave a nervous gulp as she tried to figure out what to do. It was obvious that one wrong word would set off her older sister and result in an instant Game Over for the entire world. And considering what they had actually done, there was no way that Blanc would be able to keep her calm at the news.

The fact of the matter was that the three of them had stole- er... borrowed a Landmaster from the Basilicom's museum and taken it out to an empty field in North Lowee for a spin. Things had been mostly fine until she had gotten into a minor argument with Rom about who would get to use the main laser cannon first. During their scuffle, they accidentally fired the weapon and ended up shooting Santa right as he was flying by on some prototype rocket sleigh. By the time the three of them got out of the tank to inspect the damage, the old man was lying unconscious on the snow with the remains of his ride burning behind him. Ram had wanted to simply bury the body and sleigh to hide the evidence but Rom had been adamant about getting him some proper help. After a brief debate, Sync had settled the matter by pointing out that having Santa mysteriously disappear would only cause more of an issue for them later on. Unfortunately, the only place they could have him treated without the general public knowing was the Basilicom's infirmary. And that meant letting Blanc know about what had happened. Preparing themselves for the worst, the three of them had put out the fire, buried the sleigh's remains (they couldn't have a random Hunter finding it and alerting the media after all), and hightailed it back to the Basilicom. As for the Landmaster, Sync had been able to successfully teleport it back onto its display before anyone had realized it was missing.

Ram was still trying desperately to figure out a way to phrase all of this without getting everyone killed when Sync suddenly spoke up.

"We were... um... playing outside in the empty field north of Lowee when a Horsebird tried to attack Rom," he said with only the tiniest hint of hesitation. "Ram immediately tried to protect her by shooting a fireball at it but the monster ended up dodging the attack. Santa happened to be passing by on a rocket-powered sleigh right at that moment and unfortunately got hit by the blast. On the plus side though, the explosion distracted the Horsebird long enough for me and Ram to kill it before it could hurt Rom."

Ram barely managed to hold back from letting out a sigh of relief. She definitely had to give her servant some serious credit for coming up with such a good cover story on the spot like that. They all knew that Blanc was extremely protective of them (sometimes to the point where it became almost as suffocating as Vert's breasts) and such a tale was sure to reduce her anger quite a bit as she would be more concerned about the possibility that Rom could have gotten hurt. Of course, the only truth in his tale was that they had been in North Lowee but Blanc did not need to know that.

The CPU stayed silent as she continued to glare at the boy once he finished with his explanation. The tense stand-off went on for an agonizingly long time before she finally relented and gave a large sigh.

"Are you sure you're not hurt?" Blanc asked, her voice softening a great deal as she gave Rom a concerned look.

"I... I'm fine. Ram and big bro saved me just in time," Rom replied, quickly playing along with their given story.

Their ploy actually seemed to work as Blanc's demeanor dropped from world-ending-anger to extreme annoyance instead. Just when Ram was beginning to think they were in the clear, a sharp knock came from outside the closed door.

"Enter," Blanc said while trying to mask her irritation.

The Basilicom's doctor made his way into the room looking as professional as ever. Or at least as professional as a silhouette could look but the point still stood.

"Lady White Heart," he greeted curtly. He paused to give the twins a flat look before turning back to his boss. "Please tell me that the patient your sisters brought in is just a mall Santa and not the real thing."

Blanc's eye gave a visible twitch but otherwise managed to keep her expression mostly neutral.

"Is there a reason you're asking me about this?" she asked instead.

The doctor gave a sigh. "I simply do not wish to see another war with his elves again. Spending another Nepmas treating people who got beaten by giant candy-canes is something I'd rather avoid."

"Wait, Santa declared war on Lowee before?" Sync asked with a confused look.

Ram gave a petulant pout when everyone except for her servant turned to stare at her.

"Hey! He started it first by giving me coal for Nepmas!"

"You blew up three of his toy factories and then set fire to his house," Rom said disapprovingly. "Even I think that was going too far."

Blanc chose to answer the doctor's earlier question before Ram and Rom could start another argument.

"The Santa that these two brought in is just a mall Santa," she lied. "I already have everything under control so there's no need to panic."

The doctor did not seem entirely convinced but passed it off with a short nod.

"As you say milady. But I think it prudent to let you know that the patient probably won't be waking up anytime soon. At best, it'll be about a week before he recovers any semblance of consciousness."

With that non-too-subtle warning, the doctor gave a slight bow to Blanc before exiting the room.

After a brief silence broken only by the sound of Blanc grinding her teeth in muted anger, Ram addressed her older sister with a nervous smile.

"Heh heh... I'm sure he'll be up in time before Nepmas..."

"Nepmas is tomorrow!" Blanc erupted.

Ram flinched back at this before looking to her servant for help. As always, he was quick to respond as he clapped his hands together with a bright smile.

"Guess we have no choice then," he said. "Looks like Ram, Rom, and I will have to set out to save Nepmas ourselves."

Blanc's reaction was immediate.

"OH HELL NO! YOU THREE BRATS ARE NOT-!"

Unfortunately for her (and the rest of the world), the force of her shout shook loose the large ceiling lamp above her which caused it to land directly on top of her head. With an enormous crash of breaking glass, Blanc was instantly knocked out by the large light fixture.

Ram, Rom, and Sync stood frozen in place for a while as they all stared at the unmoving form of the CPU lying before them with equally stunned looks. Eventually, Rom summoned her staff before walking up and cautiously poking her older sister's prone figure. After getting no response, she leaned in closer to check her status.

"Um... She's alive but I think it's probably better if we don't wake her up right now," she reported a few moments later.

Ram and Sync quickly nodded their agreement to this before helping Rom drag Blanc from underneath the broken lamp. After carrying the CPU onto her bed, Ram looked to her servant with a questioning look.

"So... what now?"

Sync seemed to think about it for a few seconds before giving a mischievous smile.

"Well... Blanc never finished saying what exactly we weren't supposed to do. We'll just assume that she was going to tell us not to go out tonight without some hot chocolate to warm us up."

Ram shared a smile with Rom before rubbing her hands together deviously.

"Heh heh heh. Guess it's time to save Nepmas then!"

* * *

 ** _Planeptune Basilicom..._**

"So why do you need to borrow my prototype sleigh?"

"Er... reasons..."

Rom gave a quiet sigh at her sister's lame response to Nepgear's question. As great of a prankster as Ram was, she was absolutely terrible when it came to keeping their plans hidden. Part of the reason why so many of their pranks failed was because Ram would accidentally tip off their victims too early with her poor acting skills. (The other reason was that the makeshift explosives they rigged often failed to explode properly.)

Luckily for the current situation though, Sync was around to salvage it.

"We actually took on a late-night quest to go deliver a bunch of presents to the local children," he smoothly replied. "We figured it'd fit the holiday spirit more if we flew in on a sleigh rather than just teleporting over there."

The story instantly won over Nepgear as she put on a large smile.

"Aw, that's so sweet. Is that why the three of you are wearing Santa outfits right now?"

Ram gave a quick twirl to show off her new clothes. "Yup! I bet I'm the cutest Santa ever!"

To her surprise, Rom noticed Sync glancing at her instead of her sister at this statement. This immediately caused her face to take on the same shade of red as her outfit as she looked away in embarrassment.

"Heh heh. You all look great," Nepgear cheerfully affirmed. "As for the sleigh, I'd be happy to lend it to you three. I'm pretty sure I have it stored somewhere in warehouse twenty-five so let's go get it."

One quick teleportation to the Basilicom's warehouse later, the group found themselves looking at an extremely high-tech... sleigh. Or at least, Rom guessed that was what the heavily armed vehicle was supposed to be.

"Er... Is it just me or does this thing look more like a tactical assault craft than a holiday transport?" Sync asked, mirroring Rom's thoughts.

Nepgear's eyes took on its mad scientist gleam as she proudly presented her invention.

"This is my _HyperNeptunia Mk-III Turbo Sleigh_. It's capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 3 with my newly patented Neon Energy Propulsion Units, or NEPUs for short. The quad flight processors on its base allow it to go up to a max altitude of eighty-thousand feet and its share-based shield battery can protect its passengers from any changes in temperature or air pressure you might experience while driving it. The same shield also has enough stopping force to take on the direct blast of a small Blue Shell and survive. As for its armaments, it comes equipped with a set of my prototype rotary cannons, which I still haven't named yet, on its side. Each cannon can fire up to fifty plasma rounds a second and can automatically reload itself. The front and back areas are also armed with six machine-gun turrets giving it a full three-sixty degree coverage. Other features include a cloaking field, a short-range EMP, a Hadron Cannon, ten unmanned interceptor drones equipped with proton pulse blasters, and a portable missile silo capable of firing an intercontinental nuke."

Nepgear paused for a second as she tried to think of any other noteworthy features her death machine had.

"Oh, and it also comes with cup-holders and seat warmers."

Rom, Ram, and Sync simply chose to respond to all this by staring at the 'sleigh' with open mouths. After a lengthy silence, Sync finally spoke up.

"Quick question. Why exactly did you build a sleigh capable of annihilating a small country by itself?"

The purple-haired tinkerer gave a small shrug. "I had a few spare parts and Neptune's old sled lying around so I figured I'd have some fun upgrading it."

She gave a wide smile as she looked at them expectantly. "So? What do you think?"

The three of them shared a look with each other before Ram answered with a large grin of her own.

"We'll take it."

* * *

"Alright. Now that we've got our sleigh, let's look over that list and bag we... borrowed from Santa."

Ram laid out the two items her servant mentioned onto the table in her room. The three of them decided to focus on the large red bag first as they carefully inspected it. Though it looked empty at first glance, they knew enough holiday lore to know that the bag was magical and would allow its user to bring out any toy or gift from one of Santa's workshops. The problem though was figuring out how to use it.

"Gah! This sucks!" Ram complained after several minutes of getting no results. "Hey Sync! Aren't you smart with this space stuff? Can't you figure out how to get this stupid thing working?"

Sync remained silent as he instead grabbed the electronic tablet containing Santa's list (apparently even the jolly old man had started keeping up with the times). After inputting something into the tablet, Sync put his hand into the bag and somehow managed to pull out a brand new set of crayons.

"How did you do that big bro?" Rom asked in amazement.

Sync put on a smile as he showed her and Ram the list. Looking at it, they saw that Rom's name was highlighted on the screen along with her wishlist.

"It looks like we can only pull out presents that match what's on this list. More than likely, we need to be thinking of the person's name as well as what present they want if we want to make the object appear in the bag." Saying that, he handed Rom the box of crayons he was still holding. "Speaking of which, Merry Nepmas Rom."

"T...Thanks big bro," she responded shyly as she took her gift.

"Hey! What about me?" Ram cried out.

Sync quickly turned back to the list as he searched for the younger twin's name. His expression changed into a puzzled frown though when his results came up empty.

"Huh. That's weird. Your name's not on the list. Maybe he forgot to put you on here or..." His frown deepened as he fiddled around with the list's filter settings. "Oh," he said with a slight wince. "It looks like you were placed on the Naughty list."

As expected, Ram did not react well to the news.

"WHAT?! I was on my best behavior this whole year! Grrr! That's it! I'm gonna freeze that bearded dummy for good and then bomb his house until there's nothing left but ashes!"

"W...Wait Ram," Rom said, grabbing onto her sister's shoulder before she could carry out her threat. "We have the list right now so we can just put you back on the Nice list and give you a present instead."

This thankfully managed to calm the temperamental loli down as she crossed her arms with a huff.

"Fine. But I want everything on my Nepmas list!"

Sync immediately did as he was told as he moved her name over to the Nice list. He stopped, however, when he looked over her wanted presents.

"Er... Ram? I'm pretty sure I can't pull out a moon-sized battle station with a planet-destroying laser from this bag."

"Try it!"

While he went along with her command, Sync secretly prayed that he would not pull out such a destructive weapon for her (even he had his limits when it came to giving kids dangerous objects). Surprisingly, the bag seemed to read his thoughts as he pulled out a large Lego model set of the planet-destroying battle station instead.

"Laaame!" Ram complained after seeing what she got. "This stupid toy bag sucks!" (She still snatched the Lego box from her servant though.)

Sync however seemed very interested by what just happened.

"Huh. So the present we pull out doesn't have to exactly match what the person actually wanted."

"What does that mean big bro?" Rom asked.

A mischievous smile slowly spread across Sync's face. "It means we can prank everyone in the whole world with this. We just have to be creative about it."

Rom caught onto what he was saying right away while Ram took a few more seconds to figure it out.

"Ohhh, I get it," the younger twin eventually said. "We can pull out any sort of prank gift from the bag as long as it kind of relates to their wanted presents."

Sync gave a nod as he began looking through the list while coming up with hundreds of devious ideas.

"Heh. This is going to be fun. I can already picture... wait, what?" he suddenly said. "Why's sis on this list? I know she likes to call herself young but she's definitely not a kid. Unless, of course, Santa based all of this on mental age in which case..."

Ram peeked over at the tablet before answering. "Oh, that's because Santa needs to give presents to all of the CPUs and CPU Candidates no matter how old they are. It was one of the things Blanc told him to do after he surrendered to us in the war."

Sync decided not to question this any further as he brought up the wishlist for all of the other CPUs and CPU Candidates instead.

 **Blanc: earplugs, signed copy of _Ninjas of Love_ , new hat, a more durable anger management therapist, bigger breasts**

 **Neptune: pudding**

 **Nepgear: antimatter generator, ion torpedoes, flux capacitor, the original Alloy Gear Rex, the TARDIS**

 **Noire: sewing machine, new secretary, a friend, social skills, another cat**

 **Uni: dual pulse pistols, a particle beam rifle, Nepgear, bigger breast pads**

 **Uzume: new megaphone, year supply of fish food, cool new sunglasses (like the ones S-Sha has), instruction manual on how to summon and control a Dark CPU (cause they're still awesome even if they're evil), new roller skates**

 **Vert: little sister, little sister, little sister, little sister, little sister, maybe some new game controllers**

Sync and the twins could not help but sweatdrop as they read through the list.

"It looks like big sis still wants bigger boobs," Rom said with a sigh. "I hoped she would get over that by now. And I kind of feel bad for Miss Noire..."

"Eh, we always knew Noire was a bit of a loser," Ram answered bluntly. "As for Blanc, we'll need to pop her boobs with needles if they get bigger. We saw how much of a meanie she turns into if she becomes like Vert."

Sync gave a sigh of his own. "Speaking of sis, she's about as desperate as ever. I know Santa has magical powers and all but even he's not a miracle worker."

"Maybe you can dress up as a girl for her?" Rom suggested. "That would be a pretty good way to prank her."

Sync shook his head. "Nah. I've got something else in mind for her. Though I admit, I could probably become a pretty convincing trap if I got in a dress," he added with a smile.

"Hm... I kind of doubt that," Ram said skeptically.

Sync gave a barely audible snort but otherwise did not pursue the matter any further. Instead, he turned back to the task at hand.

"Alright. Let's get started on our new Nepmas list. I doubt we'll have enough time to get everyone so let's just pick out the ones we can replace with something more fun. Hm... why don't we start with this one? Tiny Tim from Lowee apparently wants a new crutch for his bad leg..."

* * *

Once night fell, the Terror Trio got into their war-machine/sleigh and flew off to begin their deliveries.

"Okay, we've got about forty thousand houses we need to visit in Lowee," Rom reviewed as Sync turned on their ride's cloaking device (Nepgear's inventions all used the same control scheme so it had been easy for him to figure out how to pilot it). "Big bro can use his teleportation powers to put the presents directly into their houses while also getting all the cookies and milk that they set out for us."

"Some of our upgraded gifts will need to be delivered directly though," Sync added as he drove towards the city's central square. "They're either too volatile or have unique energy fields that'll prevent me from safely teleporting them over. For those, it'll be up to you two to sneak inside and get them under the tree."

"Can't we just put it in front of their houses or something?" Ram asked.

"It's tradition Ram," Sync answered. "Besides, a lot of the gifts will be more fun if we set them up right next to their beds."

The two of them shared a mischievous laugh at this while Rom looked a bit worried.

"What do we do if someone sees us?" she asked.

Sync pulled out what appeared to be a couple of smoke bombs from his inventory and handed them to her.

"These are filled with a fast-acting tranquilizer gas that I developed," he explained. "Anyone with share energy should be immune to them but everyone else will be out almost instantly."

"What if one of the CPUs finds us?" Ram asked.

Sync just gave a smile as he handed her a wooden bat.

"Heh heh heh. This will work," the younger twin gleefully said as she grabbed her new weapon.

Rom let a small sigh to this. "I really hope we won't have to use that..."

* * *

"Ugh. Why does Noire have to be so freaking heavy?"

"Be quiet Ram. We might wake up her present."

With a great heave, the twins deposited the recently bludgeoned CPU back onto her bed.

"Sheesh. Who puts motion sensor alarms all over their windows?" Ram complained as her sister checked up on Noire one final time.

"Well, Miss Vert, Neptune, and big bro all like to barge into her place a lot so I guess it makes sense," Rom answered. "Still, it's a good thing Uni's such a deep sleeper or we would have had to smack her on the head as well."

"Yeah, I guess. What should we do about Noire's cat and all of the guards we just gassed though?"

"Let's move them out of the room. We don't want them waking up first and ruining Noire's surprise."

After tucking in the CPU, Rom and Ram carefully walked around the large fluffy present they had left as they began dragging out all of the other unconscious bodies into the Basilicom's central room.

"I wonder if we're going a bit too far with Noire's prank gift," Rom asked as they carried the last of the sleeping guards out of the CPU's room and carefully closed the door behind them.

Ram answered with a shrug. "Hey, she said she wanted another cat. It's not like we're getting her something she didn't want."

"We got her a giant saber-tooth tiger Ram."

"So? Tigers count as cats."

* * *

 ** _Several hours later..._**

"Whew. Looks like we're finally done with all of our deliveries," Sync said. "Now all we have to do is... oh."

He stopped to give a smile as he saw that both Ram and Rom had fallen asleep while he had been focused on teleporting the last of the presents. The two were nestled firmly on either side of him as they both slept with peaceful smiles on their cookie-crumb covered faces. Using his telekinetic powers, he pulled out a large blanket from his inventory and covered their group with it.

"Well, guess I'm not going anywhere for a while," he said with a small laugh.

Using his powers again, he remotely set the sleigh's autopilot towards the top of the Neptral Tower near the center of Gamindustri. From there, they would have a safe vantage point to view the results of their ultimate prank.

"Oh, right. I guess there's still one more name on the list."

As the three of them flew off into the night sky, Sync checked off his own name from the Nepmas list with a happy smile.

* * *

 ** _Planeptune Basilicom  
_ _The next day..._**

"Wake up Neptune!" Histoire yelled out in a panic as she floated over to the Nep sisters' room. "We have an emergency! A boy from Lowee apparently invaded Planeptune in a giant mech suit and is currently fighting a local boy who's riding around on a fire-breathing T. Rex! Not only that there's... Neptune?!"

The Oracle stopped in shock as she entered the room and found the CPU lying motionless in front of the Nepmas tree.

"What... what happened here?"

Oddly enough, Nepgear was nowhere to be seen as nothing but silence answered Histoire. Floating closer to examine the body, she saw that Neptune was still breathing but only just barely. Fearing the worst, she looked closer and saw that the CPU was holding a spoon in her right hand and a cup of pudding in her left.

"Poison?" Histoire wondered aloud as she floated down to grab the pudding cup.

What she found though was something far, far worse.

"Eggplant-flavored pudding?"

* * *

 ** _Blanc's room..._**

Blanc woke up to the sounds of distant screams and massive explosions.

"Keep it down out there," she mumbled out. "I'm trying to-"

She suddenly jolted upright as she remembered what exactly had happened before she had been knocked unconscious.

"Shit! Don't tell me that-"

Her words were cut short when she felt something cold and wet pressed against her body. Her personal prank senses immediately went into high alert as she cautiously looked down at herself while holding her breath. Her expression quickly changed from worry to pure unadulterated rage however when she realized what exactly the three trouble-makers had done to her.

"YOU LITTLE SHITS! I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"

The pair of extra large frozen chicken breasts that were duct-taped to her formerly flat chest jiggled at her scream.

* * *

 ** _Noire's room..._**

"KYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

 ** _Uni's room..._**

Uni woke up in surprise as her sister's terrified shriek rang out across the building.

"Noire?! Is something-"

Her words died out as something else drew her attention away entirely. Barely able to believe her own eyes, Uni stared at the person standing next to her bed.

"N... N... Nepgear?"

Uni's mind immediately began racing as she took in the white and purple sailor outfit that defined the Planeptune CPU Candidate. What was Nepgear doing in her room on Nepmas morning? Was it possible that she wanted to spend the holiday with her rather than her own family? Did that mean she saw her as more than just a friend?

Uni felt her face redden at the thought as she tried to be logical about the situation. She did add Nepgear to her Nepmas wishlist as a (somewhat) joke so it was possible that Santa had brought her over for her. The gift ribbon tied over Nepgear's head added to this theory as... wait. Why did Nepgear's face look like-

"NO! Not you! I'm not letting you possess my face again!"

Nepgya gave a horrifying smile as she lunged at her terrified prey.

"Smile~!"

* * *

 ** _Vert's room..._**

"Pardon me girls but... why are all of you inside my room?"

Vert looked at the crowd of young girls gathered before her with a confused expression. While she normally would have been ecstatic about such a situation, this specific group of kids managed to make even her inner PerVert hesitate. For one, all of the girls had clammy gray skin that made them all look like walking corpses. Add in their creepy glowing yellow eyes and it was clear that they were most definitely not human.

"Um... are all of you lost? Perhaps I can-"

The moment she took a step forward with her hand outstretched, all of the girls let out a terrified scream.

The next thing Vert knew, a literal army of giant diving suit monsters smashed their way into her room to attack her.

* * *

 ** _Uzume's room..._**

"Awesome! Santa gave me a new megaphone!"

Without even bothering to look at the instruction booklet that came with it, the red-haired tomboy lifted up her new weapon and took in a deep breath to test it out.

What Uzume did not know was that the megaphone was actually a modified Sonic Amplifier used by a certain famous support hero. At max settings (which the device was currently set to), even a normal person would have been capable of creating sound waves strong enough to topple a large cargo truck. Sync and the twins had been hoping to prank Uzume by getting her to blast apart her room's wall while testing it out. Unfortunately, they had severely underestimated just how powerful the red-haired CPU's lungs actually were.

Unaware of the danger, Uzume gave a large smile as she unleashed the loudest shout she could muster.

Zero Dimension promptly exploded.

* * *

 ** _Planeptune Central Park  
_ _The day before Nepmas..._**

Much to the surprise of the local citizens, a large blue police box suddenly materialized within their midst. As they watched in confusion, Nepgear walked out of the strange machine looking rather distressed.

"I hope accidentally dropping the first Planeptune CPU's pudding cup didn't change anything too important," she muttered worriedly to herself.

"Oh, there you are Nep Jr.!" Neptune's voice suddenly called out. "Did you accidentally turn yourself into a human again with one of your science-y experiments?"

Nepgear looked up at the crowd gathered in front of her before her mouth dropped open in surprise.

"What the goodness?! Why is everyone a giant Dogoo?!"


	17. Let the Games Begin

**Ch 17: Let the Games Begin**

Vert gave a sigh as she checked off yet another box on her gigantic to-do list. Even after slaving away for four days straight since her return, she barely seemed to make a dent in the massive amount of work that had piled up during her absence. She knew it was her job to deal with such matters but the sheer amount of mind-numbing tasks made her briefly wonder if retirement was an option for her yet.

"Focus Vert," she told herself while shaking her head. "You've been through far worse than this before. Besides, you're far, _far_ , too young to be thinking about retirement already."

With that minor boost to her vanity, she finished delivering her latest batch of Holy Pineapples to the local town mayor and headed back towards the main city.

Unsurprisingly, the 'work' that Vert had been dealing with had simply been all of her backlogged MMO quests. Chika and the Ran Rans were the unfortunate ones that had to deal with the real work as they frantically tried their best to keep the country running. As for the CPU who _should_ have been dealing with all of this, she had instead locked herself in her room and had devoted herself back to her beloved game.

"Hm... perhaps I should check up on our guild storage while I'm in the area."

After taking a quick sip of her favorite green soda (her tenth bottle of the day in fact), Vert moved her Enchanter towards the center of the city where all of the guild houses were located.

Upon arriving at her 'humble' five-story tall, beautifully furnished house, she was greeted by a rather interesting conversation.

" _...really true you can actually swim in lava in this game?!"_ Ruby's enthusiastic voice was heard over the room's general chat.

" _Indeed you can my dark apprentice!"_ Tanaka answered, his avatar performing his usual 'dramatic flair' gesture. _"However, only those who can awaken their true hidden potential can achieve such a feat! Luckily for you, I can show you the path to enlightenment! First, you must channel the chaos of the Abyss into-"_

" _Please stop confusing the poor girl with your nonsense,"_ Nayru, the highest level Bard of their guild, said with an exasperated sigh. Ignoring the Summoner's resentful outburst at her interruption, she turned to address Ruby while strumming a cheerful tune with her harp. _"All you have to do to swim in the lava pools safely is attain a minimum Fire Resistance of fifty percent along with a Health Regeneration buff. Killing a Molten Frog during the weekend events will get you both of these so you should wait until then."_

" _Or,"_ Tanaka countered, _"you can offer me a mere pittance of a thousand Gold and immediately attain my Cursed Shrouds of Immortality!"_

" _That's just your old equipment from two expansions ago!"_ Nayru pointed out disapprovingly. _"For goddesses' sake, stop trying to sell off your outdated junk to the new recruits!"_

Deciding not to end up like poor Ruby and get stuck in the pair's argument, Vert quietly sneaked out of the main room.

"Honestly, when did my guild become so weird?" she wondered aloud as she entered the adjoining hallway.

" _Oh?"_ a mischievous voice suddenly said. _"Did I just hear our great leader bad-mouth the entire guild? It probably wouldn't be good if everyone hears about this. Still, I guess I could keep quiet about it... for a small fee of course."_

Vert let out a large sigh as she turned her avatar to the side to find a small blonde Merchant smiling back up at her.

"Lola," Vert greeted her Guild Treasurer. "What have I told you about blackmailing fellow guild members?"

Lola's avatar briefly used the 'thinking pose' gesture before answering. "Um... Not to do it unless it was absolutely necessary?"

Vert just used the 'face-palm' gesture in response before continuing to head towards the storage room. To her dismay, Lola happily followed along after her.

" _By the way, I actually have a new budget plan laid out and-"_

"Talk to Kotori about it," Vert quickly cut her off. The last time she had agreed to listen to one of Lola's new ideas, she had been stuck with her for nearly five hours straight as the money-loving girl spouted off a bunch of economic jargon that she could barely make sense of. And in the end, all of it had just been an extremely convoluted way of asking to get paid extra for being the Guild Treasurer.

Lola let out a loud huff over the voice chat as her avatar used the 'pouting' gesture.

" _Well I would if I knew where to find her,"_ she complained. _"I've been wanting to talk with her for a while now but she's been busy running around all over the place like she's on some sort of secret mission or something."_

Vert was about to express her confusion about this when she remembered the reconnaissance mission that she had assigned to Kotori way back when. Apparently the Tsundere Battle Mage had not been joking when she said her investigation into the new raid-clearing guild would take some time.

" _Really,"_ Lola continued on, _"if she's looking for information, she could have just come to me about it. I would have even given her a fellow guild member discount for it."_

Vert had to suppress using the 'roll your eyes' gesture at this. While she did not doubt that Lola could procure any sort of information if asked to, she also knew that the little money-grubber would demand a ludicrous fee for it in return. More than likely, this was the reason that Kotori had chosen not to ask for her aid in her investigation. Well, that and the fact that Lola was just as likely to sell the information that she was looking into the new **FGL** guild to the highest bidder as well.

As they continued to walk along, Vert could not help but look at her Guild Treasurer with a suspicious gaze. If there really was a mole leaking information to the new guild then Lola was definitely up there as one of the prime suspects. While the money-loving girl was loyal to the guild for the most part, it would not be the first time that she had made some shady, under-the-table dealings with one of their competitors. Granted, all of those transactions had resulted in their guild coming out on top in the end so it was hard to fault her for those. (Vert would never tire of recalling the image of Kirito crying for an entire month about losing his Legendary-rank coat collection for a measly five Silver and a Goblin's loincloth; Lola still refused to tell anyone how she had managed to con him into such a deal.)

Deciding to check up on her suspicions, Vert spoke up again to question the tiny Merchant.

"Are there any large business transactions you're currently engaged in?"

If the brief pause was anything to go by, Lola was rather caught off-guard by the sudden inquiry. While this could have been a sign of her guilt it was just as likely that she was merely surprised by the fact that Vert of all people was showing interest in her work.

" _Not at the moment,"_ Lola answered, her tone making her confusion apparent. _"Why are you asking?"_

Unlike her br... Sync, Vert had never been much good at reading people. The lack of a physical face to go by also did not help in this situation as she struggled to figure out if Lola was lying or not just through the tone of her voice. After a few awkward seconds, Vert realized she would not be getting anything out of her impromptu interrogation and quickly tried to redirect Lola's attention.

"Oh... um, I overheard Tanaka trying to sell off his old equipment again in the main hall. I figured if you weren't busy, you would be interested in it."

The bait worked as intended as Lola immediately used her 'rub your hands together greedily' gesture.

" _Summoner equipment prices are at an all-time high right now. If I can get my hands on an entire set of them..."_

The tiny Merchant's words trailed off into a rather evil-sounding laugh as she turned around and merrily skipped down the hallway without a backwards glance.

Watching her go, Vert could not help but feel like she had just added fuel to the fire by sending Lola into the middle of one of Tanaka and Nayru's arguments. Offering up a silent apology to Ruby (who would no doubt still be trapped between the two), Vert continued on towards the storage room with a sigh.

"Perhaps it's time I posted a minimum sanity requirement for my guild..."

* * *

Thirty minutes later and Vert was dutifully continuing to check up on their guild's inventory. And by that she meant she was busy being AFK while taking her second afternoon snack break.

"Hm... maybe I should consider cutting back on these sweets a bit," she mused aloud as she finished her giant tub of ice cream. "I wouldn't want to end up ruining my perfect figure after all."

After briefly considering it for a moment, she let out an amused laugh.

"Oh what am I talking about? A professional gamer such as myself needs all the calories I can get to stay at peak performance. And besides, I can always just use Neptune's HDD Diet Plan if needed."

With that said, she reached over to the snack tray that Ran Ran had delivered to her room and stuffed a deep-fried Twinkie into her mouth.

As she enjoyed her heavenly (diabetes-inducing) snack, Vert could not help but once again appreciate just how handy having the Ran Rans around actually was. Not only were they doing all of her work for her, they even provided her with expedient room service at routine intervals. Unlike Chika who refused to bring in food for her during her gaming sessions (something about her darling needing the exercise that walking to the kitchens provided), the Ran Rans dutifully delivered everything she wanted to eat directly to her desk. Considering her Oracle's general disapproval of her eating habits, it was easy to guess that it was Sync who had told them to provide her with the room service beforehand.

At the thought of the boy, Vert's eyes immediately went to her new naked butler figures that were on the top shelf of the display case next to her desk. A faint smile appeared on her face for the briefest of seconds before being replaced by a troubled look. Just like every other time that she happened to glance at the figures.

Despite her concern for him - and she was finally willing to admit that she did worry for him... a bit - she had yet to leave her room and visit him personally. The main reason was that she was unsure of how to approach him after everything that had happened but it was also due to the fact that he was still recovering. According to the Ran Ran she had questioned, he had briefly regained consciousness the day after their arrival but had soon gone back to sleep afterwards. Figuring that Sync would be the one to barge into her room if he was well enough to be up and about, Vert had simply decided to wait for him to make the first move.

"He should have shown up by now," Vert noted, a hint of worry leaking into her voice. "Is it possible that his condition somehow worsened during the past few days?"

Inside her head, her logical side gave an exasperated sigh.

 _'You know, you_ could _just go and visit him right now instead of fretting about like this.'_

Vert did not answer immediately as she grabbed a large triple-chocolate eclair from her snack tray and took a bite.

'I know what I'm doing,' she replied mentally, mouth too full to answer aloud. 'It's just... I'd rather not actively seek him out at the moment if I can.'

Logical Vert rolled her eyes in such an exaggerated manner that Vert could practically feel the motion.

 _'I honestly can't tell if you're just being lazy or if you're still too insecure of your own feelings to go see him.'_ Not giving her main self a chance to respond, Logical Vert retreated from the forefront of their mind with a dismissive wave. _'Do what you will,'_ she called out behind her. _'As long as you keep the boy alive long enough for me to get my answers, I don't care what you do.'_

Recalling their past conversation, Vert gave a quiet nod to herself. Having come this far, she was determined to see this through all the way to the end.

After all, her pride as a gamer would not have it any other way.

* * *

 **Four days ago...**

" _What exactly is the deal with that boy?!"_

 _With a deep scowl on her face, Vert continued to relentlessly pace back and forth in the kitchen area of her inner mind castle. After tailing the trouble-making brat all the way up the broadcast tower to question him and only getting a few snippets of frustratingly vague answers in response, the CPU was understandably in a bad mood._

" _'It's not my feelings you should be so concerned about but rather your own,'" Vert said, repeating the boy's words back to herself. "What in Gamindustri is_ that _supposed to mean?!"_

 _For once, she received no answer from her lively personas. Of course, this mostly had to do with the fact that almost all of them were still inside the meeting hall arguing with each other about the boy. The only other aspect of herself in the kitchen with her was Apathy Vert who, fittingly enough, seemed completely indifferent about the situation as she went about making some toast for herself while listening to her mp3 player._

" _Maybe all of this is just another prank of his," Vert theorized, not caring that her only audience member was not paying the slightest bit of attention to her. "Maybe he wants me to think there's some hidden meaning to his words and actions when there actually isn't so that I'll drive myself insane on a wild goose chase."_

 _Vert continued to silently ponder the likelihood of this possibility until she noticed a small wisp of black smoke coming from nearby._

" _Your bread's burning," Vert distractedly pointed out to her apathetic self._

 _With no change to her neutral expression, Apathy Vert silently popped out the burnt bread from the toaster before putting in a fresh slice._

 _Vert, meanwhile, returned back to her previous musings._

" _Argh! This is getting me nowhere!" she eventually cried out. "I'm fairly certain he was being serious during our encounter but none of what he said makes any sense!"_

 _Luckily for Vert, her logical aspect took this moment to enter the room before she could start tearing her own hair out in frustration._

" _So this was where you were," Logical Vert said, her annoyance quite plain to see. "I wanted to speak to you about- Why do I smell something burning?"_

 _Both Verts simultaneously turned towards the toaster as Apathy Vert replaced her newly burnt piece of bread once again._

" _Okay..." Logical Vert trailed off before focusing her attention back to her main self. "Ahem. As I was saying, I wanted to have a word with you about the boy."_

 _Vert gave a loud groan to this. "Please don't tell me you also think he's some sort of tragic, suffering figure that we've been mistreating this entire time."_

 _Logical Vert adjusted her glasses with a huff as if insulted by the notion._

" _Don't lump me in with those sentimental idiots. Need I remind you that I was the one who was busy arguing against that ludicrous idea from the start?" She gave an irritated shake of her head before continuing. "No, the thing I wanted to discuss with you pertains to your recent... chat with the boy."_

 _Vert looked puzzled for a moment before her eyes lit up with expectation._

" _Did you figure it out?!" she asked eagerly. "Did you actually manage to solve the mystery behind his words and uncover all the secrets surrounding the boy?!"_

 _Logical Vert simply gave a sigh to this as she crossed her arms. With her expression set in a grim frown, she let the silence drag on for a while as if debating whether or not to go through with whatever she had been planning to say. She eventually relented though when she noticed her main self nearly fit to burst with all the pent-up anticipation._

" _No, I haven't uncovered everything yet," she announced, much to the disappointment of her other self. "However," she went on, "his latest interaction with you did shed some light on a few important matters that I've been curious about."_

" _What sort of matters?"_

 _Oddly enough, Logical Vert hesitated once more before shaking her head and replying._

" _To put it bluntly, I believe that the boy is not actually the Leanbox CPU Candidate."_

 _Vert let out an immediate cheer upon hearing this._

" _Yes! I knew it! I knew he wasn't related to me!" Her celebration was short-lived as the sharp glare her logical self sent her quickly put a stop to her childish behavior. "Ahem. I mean, what made you come to that conclusion?"_

 _Logical Vert adjusted her glasses with a scowl before replying._

" _Just like you, I've had my doubts about his claims since his initial appearance. His improper connection with our share crystal and the fact that he's a boy was enough for me to be suspicious but not enough for me to confirm anything one way or the other. However, his recent actions and words provided me with the evidence that I needed to come to a conclusion."_

" _Well? What was this decisive piece of evidence?"_

 _Rather than dramatically pulling out an incriminating photograph or something of the sort, Logical Vert simply asked a question of her own._

" _Answer me this. If you suddenly found yourself with a sister but she adamantly refused to accept you as her sibling, how would you feel?"_

" _Um..." Vert trailed, completely caught off-guard by the seemingly random subject change. "I'd... imagine I would be rather hurt and depressed at being rejected like that." Her expression quickly changed into an accusatory glare when she guessed where her logical self was going with this. "Hey! I thought you said you didn't support the theory about the boy being some tragic figure!"_

 _Logical Vert gave a tired sigh as if she were dealing with an idiot (which, given her default status as the smartest persona in their mind, was not too far off the mark)._

" _You're missing the point," she explained. "If the boy truly was our brother, then there should have been at least some indication that he was feeling hurt by your rejection. However, no such indication could be seen at all. And I don't care how good of an actor you are, there is no way someone could have failed to showcase any form of emotion when your only existing family member continuously rejected your very existence at every turn."_

 _Vert winced at the accusation but held her ground. "We can't confirm that. He's clearly well-versed at hiding his true thoughts and-"_

" _And that's where the evidence I talked about earlier comes into play," Logical Vert interrupted, a small hint of triumph in her voice. "During your encounter with him in the lobby, you managed to make him drop that cheerful mask of his for a split second. Instead of looking upset or depressed like you originally guessed though, he displayed a completely different emotion than what was expected. Tell me, what exactly did you happen to see right at that moment?"_

 _Vert looked confused about what her counterpart was getting at but answered anyways. "He looked... worried."_

 _Logical Vert nodded. "To be more precise, he wore a worried expression right when you chose not to deny your relation to him."_

 _The glasses-wearing persona brought a hand up to her chin in a thoughtful manner as she began pacing across the room._

" _Now, these are the facts what we know for certain at this point." She raised her free hand and held up a finger."One. The boy wants people to believe that we're related. His constant referral to us as 'sis' is more than enough proof of this." She raised another finger. "Two. He does not feel the least bit upset about us rejecting his claims. In fact, he seemed almost... satisfied whenever we did so. While this leads us to the possibility that he's been simply hiding his inner turmoil, the final point proves that this is not the case." She raised a third finger as she came to a halt. "Three. For whatever reason, the boy does not want us to think of him as our actual brother. It's fine for everyone else to assume that we're actual siblings but the moment you showed the tiniest hint of actually believing in this yourself, his facade momentarily crumbled and he showed just how worried he was about the matter."_

" _That last point's not exactly certain though," Vert countered. "What if that worried look of his was aimed at something else?"_

 _Logical Vert casually lowered her hands and gave a thin smirk to this. "Ah, but you're forgetting about your latest meeting with him. When you asked if he was upset with you, or to be more accurate, when you showed_ concern _for him, he froze up again and dropped his cheerful act. Even his answer could be seen as a subtle way of telling you to drop your concerns regarding him."_

'It's not my feelings you should be so concerned about but rather your own.'

 _Vert's eyes widened as she realized that what her logical self was saying made sense. All of those instances by themselves could be passed off as mere coincidence but together they were starting to form a pattern._

" _Now you see what I'm getting at," Logical Vert said, noticing her reaction. "If we take all of these points into consideration, it's clear that his actions and behavior do not match up at all with that of a real younger brother."_

 _Triumphant music seemed to fill the room as Logical Vert victoriously stated her final conclusion with a dramatic finger point._

" _Ergo, the boy is_ not _the actual Leanbox CPU Candidate!"_

 _Vert stared at her other self in amazement for a few seconds before a thoughtful frown crossed her face._

" _Hold on," she said, rapidly going over everything that had just been revealed. "If what you said is all true, then who exactly is the boy? What's his purpose here? And how did he manage to establish a link with our share crystal?"_

 _The background music screeched to a halt as Logical Vert adjusted her glasses with an embarrassed cough._

" _I... did not think that far ahead," she admitted sheepishly. "I was only focused on proving my point about him not being the Leanbox CPU Candidate."_

 _Vert could not help but facepalm at this with a loud groan. Clearly her stress was starting to affect her entire mind if even her logical self was starting to behave in such a ridiculous manner._

" _Okay..." Vert eventually sighed, deciding to break the awkward silence that had filled the room. "At least we managed to prove that the boy is not my actual b... br... related to me. That's one less thing to worry about."_

 _Logical Vert gave another cough to this._

" _I believe it is fair to warn you that there is still a minuscule chance that my deduction was somehow wrong. It's highly unlikely but considering our luck so far, I feel it's better to put up a disclaimer."_

 _Vert decided not to dwell on the possibility of her being related to the boy any further as she quickly disregarded her logical self's comment and continued talking._

" _The big question now is who the boy really is and what his intentions are."_

 _Logical Vert put some thought into this for a few seconds before giving a snort._

" _Maybe he actually is an alternate-dimension prince who's pretending to be the CPU Candidate in order to hide himself from a Blight Witch," she said sarcastically._

 _Rather than dismissing the idea as expected, Vert instead put on an extremely thoughtful look to this._

" _You can't be serious," Logical Vert deadpanned, seeing her main self's expression. "I was making a joke. Don't tell you're actually considering this?"_

" _You have to admit, it fits in pretty well with what we know so far though," Vert argued. "If he was some kind of prince in hiding, it explains why he wants everyone to believe he's the CPU Candidate while not caring about my rejections of him. And going by common tropes, he's probably trying to prevent me from becoming too attached to him in order to spare my feelings for when he inevitably has to return back to his home dimension."_

 _If there was ever a need for a visual definition of the word 'exasperation', then Logical Vert's current expression would have perfectly fit the bill._

" _There are so many holes in your theory that I don't even know where to begin." She took a couple of deep breaths to compose herself before deciding to point out the biggest flaws. "Okay, first, if the boy really was a prince-in-hiding, then why would he choose to take on a role that would make him visible to, oh, I don't know,_ the entire world?! _Secondly, how would any of this explain how he managed to connect himself to our share crystal?!"_

" _Um... maybe he's trying to use the old technique of hiding in plain sight?" Vert defended half-heartedly. "As for the share crystal... er... He could have... um... That's to say... magic?"_

 _Seeing her logical self regarding her like a total idiot again, Vert tried to go on the offensive._

" _Hey! You also came up with a theory about how he's not the CPU Candidate and you don't see me making fun of you for it!"_

" _I supported my theory with actual facts and observations! All_ you're _doing is coming up with baseless fantasies and trying to twist them into matching with the circumstances!"_

" _I am doing no such thing! In fact, I have support for my theory too! I... um... Oh! Remember how I wished I could be part of an adventure game that involved a prince and a Blight Witch? It's an extremely common plot element for an ill-conceived wish like that to come true in a very convoluted manner just like what we're experiencing right now! See? That proves my theory about him being a prince!"_

 _Logical Vert slowly removed her glasses before smashing her head repeatedly against the kitchen counter._

 _Vert, meanwhile, was drawn back to her thoughts (delusions) as she put on a pondering look._

" _Although, now that I think about it, none of this exactly feels like much of an adventure game. There hasn't been much exploration involved and we haven't even been offered a single, pointless side-quest yet. In fact, I've spent almost all my time debating with myself about the situation and making simple choices on what to do next. Based on my knowledge, this fits in more along the lines of the visual novel genre than anything else."_

 _Logical Vert face planted a couple more times for good measure before dazedly getting up and putting her glasses back on._

" _The idiot thinks we're in a visual novel now," she muttered, her sarcasm levels apparently unaffected by her concussion. "Even after Neptune's already told us that we're-"_

" _I know exactly what we're in," Vert quickly cut her off, stopping her other self from shattering the fourth wall and accidentally summoning the aforementioned meme lord into their mind again. "And I'm not saying we're in an actual visual novel game. All I'm saying is that everything that's happened so far shares a large amount of similarities with a basic visual novel setup."_

 _Logical Vert seemed very tempted to raise an objection but eventually chose to concede the point with a weary sigh._

" _Fine. I suppose you_ were _our gamer persona before taking charge of this madhouse. I won't question your expertise on this particular matter." She gave a brief pause before pinning her main self with a sharp glare. "However, that does not mean I am endorsing the rest of your stupidity. You can continue to believe the boy is some sort of alternate-dimension prince all you want but the fact remains that we lack the information needed to make a solid judgment. And the only way we'll obtain this information is by continuing to observe the boy so you better make sure to keep him alive."_

 _Vert raised an eyebrow to this. "Keep him alive? Are you afraid that something's going to happen to him?"_

" _And you call yourself the gaming expert," Logical Vert muttered, rolling her eyes. "Look, even I can tell that the boy's obviously triggered a death flag and-"_

" _A death flag?!"_

 _Logical Vert winced at the loud outburst but otherwise kept up her glare._

" _You really haven't noticed? I figured anyone with basic trope knowledge could tell that the boy's going to be dead by the end of... whatever charade this entire event is."_

" _But... but... where's your proof?" Vert demanded, starting to panic a bit. After all, the last thing she wanted was to have a dead child on her hands._

 _Logical Vert gave a sigh as she crossed her arms. "Just do a basic cross-analysis of the boy's behavior with classic trope set-ups. In fact... You said our current situation resembled a visual novel game correct? Then apply his character to a standard formula and tell me how you see things playing out."_

 _Vert did as asked before answering with a nervous frown._

" _With our current set-up, there's two main endings that could occur," she hypothesized. "If we continue to keep our distance from him, he'll disappear without a trace and the unanswered questions that surrounded him will continue to haunt us for the rest of our lives. On the other hand, if we try to get close to him, he'll probably end up dying or vanishing right as we begin to become attached to him. And of course, that's not taking into account the thousands of other bad ends that could occur before we even reach those two possibilities."_

 _Logical Vert gave a nod. "That's a rather generalized summary but you can see what I'm getting at."_

 _Vert had to make a conscious effort to keep from fidgeting about nervously._

" _What are we going to do?! Histoire's going to kill me if he ends up dead on my watch!"_

"That's _the reason you're worried about him?" Logical Vert gave a faint scoff before continuing. "Well, no matter. All you need to do is use your gaming knowledge to steer the boy away from any potential bad ends he runs across. If this scenario really is like a visual novel, then I'm sure a gamer like you will have an easy enough time dealing with this task."_

 _Vert, however, did not look so sure. In general, visual novels tended to be notoriously difficult to predict. Even with all her knowledge and expertise, she could easily end up making a choice that led directly to a bad end. Something as innocuous as what sort of tea she chose to drink in the afternoon could somehow end up with the boy being killed by a psychopathic vampire in a school hallway. Even worse though was the fact that she would have no way of telling if she was already stuck in a bad end route or not. For example, she could have a touching heart-to-heart moment with the boy (complete with a CG artwork and everything) and think that she had successfully completed the game only to find out the next day that he had hanged himself in his room or something equally as awful. Add in the fact that the boy was already giving off such obvious death flag vibes and things were looking extremely bleak for her._

" _This... this is impossible," Vert eventually murmured in a despondent tone._

 _To her surprise, Logical Vert put an encouraging hand on her shoulder._

" _There's no point in giving up before you've even tried," she said, her voice sounding more stern than derisive for once. "The boy's survived for this long even without our direct intervention so things might not be as bad as you're making it out to be. If it makes it any easier, just think of all this as an actual game. While you might be a senseless idiot in most regards, even I won't refute your skills as a gamer. And as far as I now, there hasn't been a single game that you've failed to beat thus far."_

 _Vert stayed silent for a long while before giving a large sigh._

" _Fine," she said in a resigned tone. "If this really is following a standard formula like you proposed, then I suppose I'll just have to keep an eye on him. As troublesome as it is, I won't just sit by and-"_

 _She stopped when she noticed something out of the corner of her eyes. Turning her head, she was completely bewildered to find an enormous tower of burnt toast stacked almost to the top of the kitchen ceiling. Apathy Vert, the obvious creator of this strange work, did not seem to realize she had an audience as she continued to monotonously hum along to whatever song she was listening to over her mp3 player. As Vert and Logical Vert continued to watch with open mouths, the indifferent persona pulled out another bag of bread from one of the kitchen cabinets and continued to perform her bizarre bread burning ritual._

 _Perhaps it was due to all the stress and anxiety that had been building up throughout that day but Vert finally felt something snap at the ridiculous sight._

" _WILL YOU STOP BURNING MY BREAD ALREADY?!"_

* * *

Back in her room, Vert gave a large sigh as she finally gathered up her nerve to go check up on the boy. While she was fairly certain that nothing serious would happen to him again right after a major event like the fan riot, she decided she could use the peace of mind that seeing him alive would bring. Plus, she could use the opportunity to finally thank him for the present he had gotten her.

At the thought, she glanced up once more at the naked butler figures with a brief smile before she quickly shook her head.

"No, bad Vert," she admonished herself. "Don't grow attached to him or you'll end up making him disappear."

Once again, she was reminded of just how difficult her task actually was. Asides from keeping the boy safe from external dangers, she needed to make sure he was not feeling completely rejected by her while also making sure that she did not grow too close to him. It was a precarious balancing act that she still had no idea how to pull off and was honestly why she was dreading facing him again. Still, ignoring him completely was out of the picture at this point so she figured she might as well choose to approach him on her own terms.

"Well... maybe after I finish just _one_ more quest," she muttered, her focus immediately turning back to her MMO.

Scarfing down the last double fudge cheesecake bite on her snack tray with her free hand, Vert moved her avatar back towards the guild's main lobby.

As she entered the room, she saw that Ruby, Tanaka, and Nayru were still together. Thankfully, the latter two seemed to have ended their previous argument as they were sharing some recent gossip with their third member instead. Lola was nowhere to be seen which Vert assumed meant that Tanaka had refused to sell his old gear to her once again.

Deciding not to interrupt the three, Vert quietly made her way over to the room's exit.

" _... heard? Apparently, Kurumi's part of the guild that beat the newest raid wing."_

Vert immediately froze at Nayru's bit of news. Her curiosity immediately piqued, she raised the volume on her headset as she fixed all of her attention onto the room's general chat.

" _Who's Kurumi?"_ Ruby asked.

" _Only the most fearsome temptress this server has ever seen,"_ Tanaka answered ominously. _"Her dark beauty is matched only by her unholy powers to control the very fabric of time itself! It is rumored that-"_

" _She's an extremely high-level player with a penchant for teasing and flirting with her teammates,"_ Nayru translated, once again leaving Tanaka to rant about her interruptions in the background. _"She was also the only level-capped Chrono-mage during the last expansion before she suddenly decided to become a free-lancer and disappeared."_

" _Chrono-mage? I don't think I've seen that class before,"_ Ruby stated.

" _They're an extremely difficult class to use,"_ Nayru explained. _"Their main mechanic revolves around managing a secondary 'time gauge' in addition to their basic mana. Based on my understanding, if you happen to have too much or too little of this time gauge filled when trying to use certain abilities, you'll end up inflicting some serious debuffs to yourself and your party members instead. While their trademark skill of lowering their ally's ability cooldowns are extremely potent, most raid leaders don't want to take the risk of taking one along in their parties. It's far too easy for them to slip up during a high pressure raid setting and end up debuffing their entire team by accident during a crucial moment. As a result, not many people decide to put in the time and effort into learning the class."_

" _I think I get it,"_ Ruby said, using her 'nod' gesture. _"So this Kurumi person is the only one who plays this class right now?"_

Tanaka chose to answer this one. _"There are a few others but none of them are as well-known as the Dark Temptress. Legends say that she trained for an entire month without ever logging off to completely master the class. I, for one, believe she must have used her dark powers to create an army of clones to keep playing for her. No normal human could ever-"_

To everyone's surprise, Kotori chose this moment to barge into the room. This, in turn, brought attention to Vert who was currently standing frozen next to the door.

" _Ah! Kotori, Vert!"_ Ruby greeted enthusiastically. _"We haven't seen you in-"_

The rest of her words were lost as Kotori wordlessly dragged Vert into a private room.

Oddly enough, the Battle Mage did not immediately give out her report to Vert as expected as she instead started pacing her avatar back and forth while muttering incomprehensibly over the voice chat.

"Um... Kotori? Are you alright?" Vert asked worriedly. When she failed to get a response, she decided to try and start up the conversation herself. "Have you heard? It seems Kurumi's decided to come out of the shadows and joined up with **FGL**."

This finally managed to get a reaction from the agitated redhead.

" _Oh, I've heard,"_ Kotori growled angrily, still refusing to stop her avatar from pacing. _"That conniving, no-good, brother-seducing..."_ The rest devolved into incomprehensible mutters again as she continued to vent her anger.

While Vert had pieced together from past conversations that Kotori and Kurumi apparently shared some sort of history with each other in real life, this was the first time that the Tsundere was openly talking about the mysterious Chrono-mage. As curious as Vert was, she knew from experience not bother an already agitated Tsundere so she simply waited for Kotori to get everything out of her system instead.

After a few minutes, Kotori finally came to a halt as the sound of a candy wrapper being crumpled up was heard over the chat.

" _Sorry about that,"_ the Battle Mage said, her voice slightly muffled from the candy she apparently had in her mouth. _"I just hoped I'd never have to personally cross paths with_ her _in here and ..."_

Vert could easily picture Kotori shaking her head before changing the topic.

" _Anyways, I looked into the rest of_ **FGL** _like you asked,"_ she reported, returning to her normal business-like tone. _"As it turns out, the group really is an actual social guild. Most of its members aren't even equipped well enough to get through the previous expansion's raid, let alone the current one."_

"What?! Then how did-"

" _Let me finish,"_ Kotori growled. After waiting to make sure Vert kept her mouth shut, she continued. _"I had to do some serious digging around but I eventually learned that the guild's leader, Amadeus, started becoming more active recently. According to my sources, Amadeus generally tended to stay offline for extremely long periods of time and left the day-to-day running of the guild to his advisors. However, he recently started coming online more often and spent most of his time in private chats with various players. It's hard to confirm for sure but I'm fairly certain that's when he assembled his team."_

"His team?"

" _I'm talking about the team he cleared the raid with. From what I can gather, Amadeus decided to bring together various talented free-lancers to create a special, raid-focused group within his guild. Unfortunately, I don't have much information on the individual members due to them barely interacting with anyone else in the guild. The only exception is Nigh- I mean, Kurumi and that's only because she's been having fun harassing their new recruits. Not that I'm really surprised by that kind of behavior from her."_

Kotori quickly stopped herself from going on another rant and brought up a large holographic screen instead.

" _Anyways, what I did manage to get is a clip of_ **FGL** _clearing the last boss of the first wing. I had to pull in quite a few favors with the higher-ups to get this but I'd say it was worth it. It's... well, just watch."_

Leaning forward in anticipation, Vert watched as the video began to play.

The recording opened up to show the all-too-familiar visage of the giant Demon Alpaca. Apparently, the battle had just started at this point in the video as the giant beast was currently at its full ten bars of health. Vert quickly glanced down at the name displayed on the HUD they were viewing this through and confirmed that the recording was from the point-of-view of Amadeus himself.

"Wait," Vert interrupted, focusing back on the battlefield and immediately noticing something strange about the scene. "Am I counting wrong or are there only six people in the raid right now?"

" _Yes, there's only six,"_ Kotori confirmed. _"Now be quiet and watch."_

Vert could not suppress the feeling of confusion and dread as she looked back at the screen. Generally, raid parties in _4GO2_ consisted of twelve people in total. The implication that this Amadeus person had somehow managed to clear the raid wing with half the usual number of party members made her even more anxious to see what was going to happen.

To her utter bewilderment, nothing much seemed to occur on-screen for quite a while. As far as she could tell, Amadeus and Kurumi (the only other person who was standing still long enough for her to read the name of) were busy casting random spells in the back as if warming up for something while the rest were simply dodging the alpaca's attacks.

Just when Vert was about to question whether this was simply some sort of prank video, it happened. At a signal that was probably given through their private chat, the team assembled together before proceeding to... melt the giant Alpaca.

Well, not literally, of course. But the speed at which the boss's HP went down practically made it seem that way. In a massive flurry of attacks, the alpaca immediately went from ten to eight bars as it temporarily entered an invulnerable state as it shifted its attack pattern.

"What just...?"

" _Quiet!"_

Deciding to hold her questions till the end, Vert watched as the party dodged the alpaca's acid spit attacks before unleashing all hell on the boss once again. Based on the massive amount of inputs appearing on the screen, Amadeus was clearly doing _something_ but Vert's unfamiliarity with his class along with the speed at which he used his abilities made it nearly impossible to follow. What she did manage to notice though was that the rest of his teammates' abilities all appeared to have an extremely short cooldown for some reason.

Just as she was about to shout out that the group was obviously using hacks, she remembered the main ability of the Chrono-mages. Suddenly, the massive amount of actions displayed on Amadeus' screen made sense to her. Someway, somehow, he was managing to apply his cooldown reduction buff to all of their individual party members while simultaneously managing his time gauge levels and avoiding the boss's attacks. Not only that, Vert was sure he was also coordinating his team's attacks over their private chat as well.

The rest of the battle continued on in much the same fashion. Amadeus would constantly provide his team with a cooldown reduction buff while Kurumi supported him by buffing the few people that he could not reach at the moment. As for the rest of the party, they were free to throw out their own buffs, debuffs, heals, and attacks like they were going out of business. One thing that Vert noted though was that the group lacked the innate teamwork and coordination of a long-time raid group. While each of the party members seemed fairly skilled in their own right, they made several minor mistakes in their positioning at various times which would have undoubtedly ended up in a wipe for any other team. However, the constant stream of healing and short-term invulnerability spells were more than enough for the group to safely plow through the opposition.

In what felt like no time at all, the last of the alpaca's health bar was evaporated as the video came to an end with the giant monster exploding dramatically into a shower of fluffy sparks.

Not surprisingly, Vert was stunned silent by all of this as she continued to stare open-mouthed at the screen in front of her for what felt like an eternity.

"How... How is this possible?" she eventually breathed out. "That amount of multitasking... it... it shouldn't be possible!"

" _Well apparently it is,"_ Kotori answered grimly. Having seen the video beforehand, she was clearly not as in much shock as her leader. _"As per the rules, the Game Masters were given the full video to make sure that the winning team were not implementing any sort of hacks. After several days of investigation, they decided to rule this as a legit run."_

Vert was at a loss for words before her mind quickly went into full-on denial mode (something she found herself doing far too often lately).

"No, this has to be a mistake. They... Amadeus... he's probably one of the GMs in disguise or-"

" _This isn't the time for one of your baseless conspiracy theories,"_ Kotori quickly cut off, giving Vert an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu . _"If we don't figure out an actual way to deal with this, we're going to end up losing every single one of the first clear bonuses for this expansion!"_

This successfully managed to grab Vert's attention.

"S... Surely, the GMs won't allow **FGL** to implement such an unfair strategy against the other raid wings?" she said uncertainly. "Amadeus' group is doing nothing more than taking advantage of the developers' oversight on just how overpowered the Chrono-mage abilities actually are."

Kotori's avatar shook her head. _"If you're expecting some kind of nerf to the class then you can keep on dreaming,"_ she said, crushing whatever faint hopes Vert had. _"I checked in with one of my contacts in the higher-ups and he said that they're all simply impressed that someone's finally managed to fully utilize all of the Chrono-mage's abilities. If anything, they probably want Amadeus to succeed so that they can get more data on both his class and his skill."_

"But... but this isn't fair!" Vert tried to argue. "While I will grudgingly admit that Amadeus himself might have some skill, the rest of his team were just spamming abilities! All of the other raid guilds had to spend days practicing with their entire team for this! It simply isn't right to award a single person for essentially carrying the rest of his team while ignoring the guilds that had to put in actual work!"

" _Now you're just whining,"_ Kotori grumbled, using her 'roll your eyes' gesture. _"Despite what you think,_ _ **FGL**_ _had to practice for their run as well. If what I learned is true, then this video of them clearing the run was actually their fourth attempt. And while their teamwork was extremely sloppy compared to ours, it was obvious they were sticking to some sort of plan instead of just mindlessly mashing buttons like you're implying."_

A heavy silence filled the room as Vert realized that no outside help would be forthcoming.

"What can we do then?" she eventually asked despondently.

To her surprise, Kotori actually provided an answer.

" _There's only one thing we can do. We need to find and stop the mole that's been leaking information to Amadeus."_ Seeing Vert use her 'questioning expression' gesture, she elaborated. _"Putting aside his skill and unique party set-up, Amadeus only managed to get through this raid wing because he somehow knew about all of its mechanics beforehand."_

"But you said **FGL** went through this wing multiple times," Vert reminded. "Amadeus could have just used those previous runs to scope out the place."

Kotori used her 'shake head' gesture. _"Even if he is some sort of gaming genius, figuring out an entire raid wing's worth of mechanics in just four runs is impossible. I hate saying this but Glasses-man is one of the smartest players I know and apparently even he couldn't map out all of the mechanics until his eighth try. And this was with him having researched several of those mechanics beforehand."_

A faint spark of hope began blossoming in Vert once again.

"So Shiroe was correct about suspecting the presence of a mole passing along raid information to **FGL** then," she summarized, using her avatar's 'thinking pose' gesture. "If we can stop Amadeus from getting his hands on the next wing's mechanics, he'll be forced to waste his time mapping out the place manually."

" _And that'll give us the chance we need to get through the place first,"_ Kotori finished with a 'nod' gesture. There was a brief pause before she continued on in a grim tone. _"However, the GMs and developers won't offer us any sort of help on this matter. As long as Amadeus wasn't hacking the game or stealing information directly from them, they won't intervene in a case of guild-to-guild espionage. It'll be all on us to find the spy and stop him or her."_

Vert bit her lips as she realized just how serious the issue had become. The fate of the entire ruling structure of the guilds in the server now hinged on whether or not they could catch this mole. If things continued on as they were, all three of the main raid guilds would stand to lose their reputations as well as all the influence and power that came with it. And if that happened, then all those countless years they had spent on building up their power would come crumbling down in an instant.

"Did you happen to find any clues pertaining to this mole during your initial search?" Vert asked.

" _Unfortunately, no,"_ Kotori said, her frustration over her own lack of answers clearly coming through in her tone. _"I was too busy trying to unearth as much as I could about Amadeus and_ **FGL** _to put much resources on that front_. _"_

"Don't blame yourself," Vert quickly reassured her. "You've uncovered far more about Amadeus and his guild than I could have ever hoped for and for that I sincerely thank you."

Not surprisingly, Kotori immediately became flustered over the praise.

" _It...It wasn't like I was doing it for you or anything, stupid!"_ Kotori shouted, her obvious reddening face almost transmitting from across the screens. _"I... I was just doing my job! After all, someone has to make sure you don't run this guild into the ground!"_

Vert just gave a mental laugh at the Tsundere's reaction as she waited for her to calm down.

" _Hmph! A... Anyways, there's no guarantee that the mole is even in our own guild,"_ Kotori eventually said, returning back to her business-like tone. _"You told me that the reason Glasses-man contacted you and the Gary-Stu is because he couldn't figure this out by himself either. As much as I hate the thought, you'll probably need to cooperate with them again if you want any chance of finding this mole before the next raid wing is unveiled a few weeks from now."_

Vert gave an audible groan at the thought of having to meet up with Shiroe and Kirito again. Still, given the circumstances, she really did not have much of a choice.

"I'll contact them as soon as you have something to report to me," she answered. "Knowing those two, they won't say anything unless I have some news to share with them first."

Kotori used a 'nod' gesture before moving over to the room's exit portal. Before she went through though, she suddenly seemed to remember something as she stopped and turned around.

" _Oh, I almost forgot. It's only a minor detail but it seems Amadeus hasn't been online for quite a while recently. No one in his guild seems to know why but I figured his sudden disappearance can't mean anything good."_

Vert was just about pass off this information as inconsequential when a figurative pair of dots seemed to connect in her mind.

"When exactly did he stop coming online?!" Vert almost yelled, her heart pounding in her chest as she prayed that what she was thinking was not true.

Kotori seemed rather taken aback by her leader's panicked tone but answered anyways.

" _I don't have an exact date but about a few days ago. Hm... now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure my contacts reported that he stopped coming online around the same time you went offline as well."_ She paused to give Vert a 'suspicious gaze' gesture. _"Do you know something about this?"_

"No," Vert answered, perhaps a bit too quickly. "I was just mistaken. Anyways, you can get back to searching for our potential mole. Contact me as soon as you come across anything important."

Kotori continued to stare at her boss for a while longer before giving a curt 'nod' gesture and exiting the room.

Vert, meanwhile, logged off from her game right away as she tried to calm herself.

There was no way that her conjecture could be right. Shiroe had told her that Amadeus had been the guild leader of **FGL** for years already. The rest of these current events had to be nothing more than a simple coincidence.

After all, why would _Sync_ of all people be involved in her game?

The more she thought about it though, the more she could not help but doubt herself. Amadeus had reappeared from one of his long offline sessions at roughly the same time as the boy. Not only that, Amadeus had displayed some rather odd behavior during his latest reappearance by suddenly recruiting a bunch of players and creating a special-ops raid team for no discernible reason. Was it possible that Sync had hacked or bought the original Amadeus's account then? And was he doing all of this just to mess with her?

Vert shook her head as she tried to view this logically. The boy had only been around for a couple weeks at most. Even if he had gotten his hands on a high-level account, there was no way he could have displayed the skills that she had seen on the clip that Kotori had shown her. But then again, she had no real way of knowing if that was true or not either. She still lacked any concrete clues as to who or what the boy really was and he had never actually displayed any of his gaming skills in front of her. For all she knew, he could be one of those mythical Game Wizards who supposedly lived in the faraway dimension known as 'California'.

Vert gave a loud groan as she buried her head in her hands. The last thing she wanted was to have her two problems intertwine like this. She already had enough on her mind with trying to keep the boy from activating his death flag without also suspecting if he was trying to sabotage her MMO lifestyle as well. And the worst part was that she was currently at an impasse as far as both mysteries were concerned.

She suddenly raised her head as she realized something. Actually, there _was_ one thing she could do. She could just visit Sync right now and question him directly. There was no guarantee that he would provide her with any answers - if their last talk was anything to go by - but perhaps she could still gather some tiny shards of truth from their interaction that would help her piece together the giant puzzle her life had suddenly become.

Glancing at her naked butler figures once again, she made up her mind with a determined look as she finally got out of her chair...

...only to find a giant green portal hanging over her room.

"What in the-?"

The rest of her words were drowned out as a torrential mass of cheese wheels suddenly rained down from the portal. Vert immediately found herself buried underneath the massive flood of cheese as her room began to fill up all the way up to the ceiling. Soon enough, the door to her room was forcibly pushed open by all the cheese wheels that had accumulated inside as a large amount of them cascaded into the hallway.

"UWAAAAAAGH!"

Unfortunately for her, Chika happened to be passing by right at that moment and found herself being immediately swallowed up by the sudden wave of cheese that had appeared.

The good news was that the portal had disappeared by this point which meant that the cheese wheels spilling out into the hallway lowered the room's cheese levels to about two-thirds as opposed to completely submerging it.

After swimming/climbing upwards for several seconds, Vert finally managed to make her way to the surface of the newly formed Sea of Cheese. Taking in several deep breaths, she looked around before spotting three people that had not been in the room before.

"Woohoo! That was fun!" Big Nep shouted excitedly, her arms and head just barely poking out of the cheese wheels surrounding her. "Let's do that again!"

Next to her, a pair of legs were seen sticking out of the cheesy ocean. Judging from the black leg warmers with buttons attached to them, the legs most likely belonged to one Uzume Tennouboshi.

" _Why does this keep happening to me?"_ the tomboy's muffled voice was heard asking in a sad tone.

Vert, however, was mainly focused on the blond boy who was calmly sitting on top of all the cheese with a strange wooden staff in his hand. Realizing he was being watched, he looked over at the dumbfounded goddess with a wide smile.

"Hey sis!" Sync happily called out. Without waiting for a response, he reached down with his free hand and picked up a particularly large wheel of yellow cheese before holding it out to her. "Gouda?"


	18. Never Should Have Come Here

**Ch 18: Never Should Have Come Here**

"Zzzz... Five more minutes Umio... let me just- Uwaagh! "

Uzume was jolted awake as the ground beneath her suddenly lurched upwards. Years of survival instincts immediately kicked in as she steadied herself and swiftly took in her surroundings. To her surprise, she found that she was sitting inside a Horsebird-drawn wooden cart that was traversing across an unfamiliar forest path. Several other carts were seen ahead of her's as they appeared to be traveling in some sort of convoy. Apparently, the cart she was in had hit a bump in the road earlier which was the cause for her rude awakening. Before she could question any of this further, though, her attention was drawn to the fact that her hands were currently bound together by thick ropes.

"What the-? Where am I?! What's going on?!"

"Hey, you. You're finally awake," a deep voice answered her panicked shouts.

Snapping out of her shock, Uzume took a closer look at her surroundings and realized that she was not alone inside the moving cart. A bizarre group consisting of two Dogoo Men and a gagged girl that looked a lot like IF were sitting besides her with their hands tied up as well. Deciding not to question why a lookalike of one of Neptune's friends was here - or how the ropes were managing to restrain the two jelly-like monsters - for the time being, Uzume instead focused on the Dogoo Man which had just spoken to her.

"Hey, what's going on here?" she asked. "And what happened to the dragon that-"

"You were trying to cross the border, right?" the Dogoo Man continued, as if unaware of Uzume's interruption. "Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us and that Horsebird thief over there..."

 _'Oh, they're just NPCs,'_ Uzume quickly realized as the other Dogoo Man joined in on the scripted dialogue. With that in mind, she tuned out the rest of the NPCs' conversation as she tried to remember what had happened before she had woken up in this situation.

After a bit of concentration, she recalled that she had been chasing after the giant doomsday dragon across the uncharted ocean west of Planeptune for what seemed like an entire day. After that, her memory became a bit hazy – probably from her exhaustion – but she vaguely recalled seeing a bunch of multi-colored lights surrounding her and the dragon before experiencing a brief falling sensation. If her various travels with Big Nepsy were anything to go by, she had most likely followed the dragon through some sort of dimensional wormhole (they turned up frequently enough in Gamindustri) and had passed out shortly afterwards from exhaustion. Following that, she guessed that the dragon had made its escape while she had been found by these 'Imperials' that the Dogoo Man just mentioned and had been accidentally lumped in with all the other prisoners.

"Shut up back there!" the Imperial guard driving the cart shouted, putting an end to the two still conversing Dogoo Men. Uzume, meanwhile, took a closer look at the guard in question and quickly noted that he looked nearly identical to the Lastation guards in the Hyperdimension.

"Yup. Definitely in some kind of alternate dimension Gamindustri," Uzume confirmed with a nod. At least now she knew why there was a clone of IF sitting in the cart with her. More than likely, there were more lookalikes of her friends and acquaintances somewhere out in this world as well.

"Hmm... I wonder if there's a clone of me in this place as well?" she thought aloud. Without really thinking about it, she crossed her fingers together as a dreamy expression fell over her face. "Heh heh. I bet this world's Uzume is a totally amazing and super awesome hero who-"

Before she could finish, the cart hit another large bump in the road which snapped her out of her trance. Shaking her head, she immediately returned back to her usual personality.

"Ack! This isn't the time to be daydreaming! I need to get outta here and find that stupid dragon!"

With that said, she began trying to free herself from her binds. To her surprise though, the ropes were far stronger than she had anticipated and refused to budge even with her augmented strength.

"Gah! What are these things made of?!"

After struggling to free herself for several minutes (even going so far as to try and chew her way through the ropes) and not getting any results, she decided to switch tactics and bypass the entire situation altogether.

"HDD activate!"

Her hopes of transforming and flying away were quickly dashed, however, when nothing happened.

"Huh?" Uzume uttered, half-standing in the awkward heroic pose she had tried to make with her hands still tied together. "Why can't I transform?"

Getting no outside answers, she thought about the issue herself before coming to the conclusion that the distance between this world and Zero Dimension was probably what was preventing her from accessing the full extent of her share energy. That was as far as she managed to get though before the cart she was in came to a sudden halt. Barely managing to stop herself from tumbling over, she saw that the carts had arrived inside the middle of a small rural village while she had been preoccupied with her attempts to free herself.

"Looks like this is it," the Dogoo Man that had first spoken to her said, slowly filing out of the carts with the other prisoners. "End of the line."

Seeing no other option left to her at the moment, Uzume forced herself to walk off the cart and stand next to the grim-faced IF clone.

 _'Maybe I can just run away right now,'_ Uzume thought. _'They're only NPCs and they probably won't-'_

"You'll never take me alive!" the Horsebird thief Dogoo Man suddenly yelled as he made a break for the village exit.

"Gunners!" the apparent captain of the Imperial guards yelled out.

As Uzume watched with wide eyes, the Dogoo Man was shot down by a dozen of the guards' rifles until all that remained of him was a sad little puddle of blue-colored goo.

"Anyone else feel like running?" the guard captain asked.

Uzume furiously shook her head with a terrified expression even though she knew that the NPCs would not respond to her.

Everything after that dissolved into a panic-filled blur for Uzume. The most she could recall was giving her name to a guard that asked who she was, being corralled in front of a large wooden block with the rest of the prisoners, and watching an androgynous-looking girl - who was apparently the Imperial general - giving a speech about how IF had started some sort of civil war or something. The lost CPU only snapped back to attention when she realized that one of the Dogoo Men had stepped forward and was kneeling in front of the wooden block with his head placed upon it.

"Huh? What's-"

Before she could finish, one of the Lastation/Imperial guards walked up with a gigantic ax before mercilessly bringing it down onto the Dogoo Man's neck.

"HOLY FLYING UMIO!"

Uzume's exclamation went unheard as the crowd instead watched as the Dogoo Man's decapitated head fell to the ground... only for it to hop back to life as a regular Dogoo seconds later. Before the dumbfounded CPU could figure out how to respond to this, the newly formed Dogoo tried to make a break for it. Unfortunately, the guard captain was quick to respond.

"Gunners!"

To its credit, the hopping Dogoo actually managed to make it further than the previous escapee before being vaporized into a puddle as well.

Before Uzume could even think to compose herself, the guard captain pointed directly at her.

"Next, the red-haired valley girl!"

"Valley girl?!" Uzume repeated, half in shock and half in indignation.

When she refused to move, two of the nearby Imperial guards came up and grabbed her by her arms.

"W...Wait!" the CPU cried out, trying and failing to stop herself from being dragged over to the chopping block. "This is all a mistake! I'm not one of the rebels!"

Her panicked shouts were completely disregarded as she soon found herself being forced to stand above the large blue puddle that the decapitated Dogoo Man's body had melted into. When the guards tried to force her down onto the slime-covered chopping block, Uzume began struggling twice as hard as before.

"Ahhhh! Stop! I don't want to get slime all over my clothes!" There was a brief pause before she remembered the more pressing matter at hand. "Also I don't want to get my head chopped off!"

Luckily for her, a strange distant noise suddenly echoed out from the skies, pulling everyone's attention away from her.

"What was that?" one of the guards restraining her asked.

"It's nothing," the guard captain dismissed. "Carry on."

Once again though, the strange sound came from the skies above. Managing to focus on it this time around, Uzume identified the sound as some sort of... whistle?

Before she had a chance to ponder about it any further, the source of the bizarre sound dropped out of the clouds and made its appearance.

"What in the Underworld is that?!" the androgynous general from before exclaimed.

Even Uzume, who had seen some pretty weird things during her life, found herself at a complete loss for words.

Flying across the skies and heading directly towards them was an old-fashioned train engine with a creepy smiling face on its front.

 _'Choo choo!'_

With another cheery whistle, the giant flying train landed on top of a nearby stone watchtower. As everyone watched with various bewildered and terrified looks, the train's smile widened wickedly before it let loose its loudest whistle yet.

The next thing Uzume knew, the once clear sky was transformed into a raging maelstrom of fire and death as gigantic train cars filled with coal began to rain down from the heavens.

"Guards! Get the townspeople to safety!" the general yelled, her words barely carrying through the train-pocalypse that was occurring. "Someone get the battle mages-"

That was the last thing Uzume heard before a green glow covered her entire body and she disappeared with a faint 'pop!'.

* * *

"AHHHH! DEMON TRAINS!"

Uzume's belated cry of terror came to a quick halt as she somehow found herself inside a large cave before being dropped face-first onto the dirt floor.

"Owww..."

To her surprise, her muffled groan was answered by a very familiar voice.

"Aha! A wild Uzume has appeared!"

Looking up, the CPU found none other than Big Nep pointing at her with a triumphant smile.

"Big Nepsy?" Uzume asked in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

Big Nep did not immediately answer as she approached to help her friend up first. Seeing that her hands were bound, Big Nep pulled out one of her swords to cut away the ropes before facing Uzume with a wide smile.

"I was looking for you, duh. You were gone for a while and I was getting worried."

Uzume could not help but feel touched by her friend's concern for her. "Aw, Big Nepsy," she said, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "You didn't have to-"

"Also my little teddy bear really wanted to go on a dragon hunting field trip and I couldn't say no to him."

"Teddy bear?"

Big Nep answered Uzume's question by simply pointing behind herself. Peering over her friend's shoulder, Uzume was surprised to find a blond-haired boy wearing a large green coat slumped over on the ground.

"Zzz... Bring me... the liquid-activated explosives Ram," he mumbled, quite clearly fast asleep. "Let's put it... zzz... in sis's cereal..."

Big Nep seemed rather surprised to find the boy asleep as she turned around to approach him. Ignoring Uzume's baffled expression, the older Neptune pulled out a Life Fragment from her inventory and used it on him. As the item's glow faded, the boy slowly blinked awake before lethargically raising his head and glancing over at Uzume.

"Oh, hey. Looks like I successfully managed to teleport you here." The boy paused to give a loud yawn before looking over at Big Nep with a sheepish expression. "Heh heh. Guess I'm not as fully recovered as I thought if a minor warp like that managed to overtax me."

"You said you were completely fine before coming here," Big Nep chided, putting her hands on her hips like a disapproving parent. "You should have taken an extra day off to rest if you were still feeling this exhausted."

The boy waved off her concern with a weak smile. "I'm fine. Besides, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... and I wouldn't miss it... for... zzz..."

Big Nep shook her head with a sigh as the boy nodded off once again. Despite her outward show of exasperation though, an amused smile could still be seen on her face. Pulling out an Exuberant Fragment this time, she began to playfully poke him on his cheek as she used the upgraded item on him.

"Wakey, wakey," Big Nep said teasingly, causing the boy to give a sleepy yet disgruntled groan at her pokes.

Seeing the two interact, Uzume got the distinct feeling of watching a caring yet mischievous older sister looking over her younger brother.

"So..." the red-haired CPU eventually said as the boy got back up. "He's your... teddy bear huh?"

Big Nep gave an energetic nod to this while her charge just gave another groan.

"I told you to stop calling me that in public, Ms. Neptune," he complained. His tone, however, lacked any real resentment in it which Uzume guessed meant that he was not as annoyed by the title as he let on.

Whatever the case was, the boy obviously wanted to change the subject as he quickly turned to Uzume and properly introduced himself.

"Ahem. My name is Sync and I'm the CPU Candidate of Leanbox," he announced, giving a polite little bow to accompany his words. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Awww... isn't he adorable when he acts all formal like this?" Big Nep cooed, squeezing the poor boy like a... well, teddy bear.

Uzume just gave a brief, uncertain laugh at her friend's behavior before crossing her arms and focusing on the smothered boy.

"So you're Vertsy's little brother huh. That's a bit of a surprise. I don't think I've ever heard about a guy being a CPU or CPU Candidate before." She paused as an old memory surfaced to her mind. "Actually, no. I think I kinda remember hearing about Leanbox being founded by a guy as well. Of course, this was just a rumor I heard _way_ back when I was the CPU of Planeptune."

"Wait, there were others like Sync before?" Big Nep asked, still refusing to let go of her cuddle toy.

Uzume tried to recall her past a bit more before giving a noncommittal shrug. "Eh, can't really say for sure. This was during the end of my rule and things were a bit... crazy for me. Anyways, I just remember this cause a lot of Planeptune's scientists back then came from the island that became Leanbox. They're the ones I heard the rumor from but I never had the chance to check it out for myself. For all I know, the founder of Leanbox could've just been some really buff chick that everyone mistook for a dude or something."

Big Nep gave a laugh to this while her crushed victim used this chance to slip out of her grasps.

"Yeah, well, you can't really trust rumors," Sync casually dismissed, looking remarkably fine considering the smothering he just went through. Straightening out his clothes, he turned to Uzume with a small smile. "Anyways, why don't you introduce yourself as well? I already know who you are thanks to Ms. Neptune but we might as well do it for propriety's sake."

"Pro- what now?" Uzume shook her head as she dismissed her own question. "Never mind."

Taking out her megaphone with a dramatic flourish, the CPU faced Sync with a smile.

"I'm Uzume Tennouboshi! I'm the former CPU of Planeptune and the current ruler of Zero and Heart Dimension!" She struck her V-II victory pose as she stared at the boy expectantly. "So waddya think? Pretty cool huh?"

Sync brought a hand up to his chin as he gave her a judging look.

"Hm... seven point eight out of ten," he eventually said. "Too much orange."

Uzume immediately drooped down in disappointment and disbelief. "What?! How's that a bad thing?! And I'm not even wearing a lot of orange right now!"

The boy seemed greatly amused by her reaction as he simply gave a mischievous smirk.

"Heh heh. Come on Sync. Just tell her she's cool already," Big Nep said. "She won't stop bugging you until you admit it."

"Now you're just making me sound desperate," Uzume grumbled.

Sync ignored this as he answered Big Nep with a shrug. "Eh, I'll reserve further judgment for now. Besides, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for her to try and impress me while we hunt down this dragon."

"Oh yeah." Big Nep turned to her friend with an inquiring look. "Where is that big bad dragon anyways?"

Uzume gave an embarrassed cough to this before recounting her failed chase and all the bizarre things that had happened to her afterwards. When she got to the part about the flying demon trains though, an unexpected voice suddenly spoke up.

" _Ugh. Not this dimension,"_ the disgruntled voice of Croire said, her muffled comment echoing out from the pocket where Big Nep kept her Nep-Note.

"Crostie?" Big Nep asked, pulling out her magical notebook. "You know something about this dimension?"

The captive tome-fairy muttered something that sounded like a curse before answering. _"Yeah, I've been to this crazy place before. And I really don't want anything more to do with it ever again. You idiots can have fun dealing with this place on your own."_

With that, Croire turned silent, obviously intent on ignoring them.

"Well, she's as helpful as ever," Uzume said with a roll of her eyes.

Sync, meanwhile, had a look of concentration on his face as he seemed to be focusing on something else. After a few seconds, he shook his head with a small sigh.

"Well, I can definitely sense the flying train Uzume mentioned but I can't find anything resembling a giant dragon anywhere around here," he reported. "On the other hand, I did notice that time seems to run a bit faster here relative to our home dimension." He crossed his arms as he looked to Uzume with a calculating expression. "I suppose that means you must have been knocked out cold for longer than you originally thought after arriving in this world. Ms. Neptune and I followed you about two days since you started chasing after the dragon and even factoring in the full day that you spent following it in the Hyperdimension, we're looking at a time gap of nearly a week since your initial arrival in this dimension and our meeting right now."

"Um... can you repeat that again?" Uzume asked.

Sync gave a smile as he simplified his explanation. "Long story short, a week here roughly translates to about a day in the Hyperdimension. Since Ms. Neptune and I came to this dimension a day after you did, you must have been lying unconscious for nearly a week before you got captured and woke up in that prisoner cart." He paused to give Uzume a critical look. "I have to say though, you must have quite a bit of plot armor in this world to have avoided being attacked by any sort of wild animal or bandits while you were knocked out. Not to mention, I'm kind of surprised you're not feeling sore from sleeping out in the wilderness for that long."

Uzume gave a small laugh as she rubbed the back of her head. "Eh heh. Well, I don't know about the plot armor bit but I'm probably feeling fine cause I'm used to roughing it outdoors."

"Yeah, you can sleep just about anywhere from what I've seen during our travels," Big Nep agreed. Laughing a bit at her friend's embarrassed look, she turned to Sync with a questioning expression. "So what do you think happened to the dragon during all this then?"

Sync gave a shrug. "I'm guessing it ran off somewhere to recover. You told me Uzume beat it up pretty badly before it tried to escape so I doubt it could have wandered off too far."

A brief silence fell over the cave before Sync cheerfully clapped his hands together.

"Well, we might as well get started on our dragon hunting quest then. I can sense the demon train thing flying away and there's an untouched village nearby that we can visit to try and gather information from."

Uzume eagerly agreed to the plan as she dramatically pointed forward with her megaphone.

"Alright! Operation Dragon Quest is a go! Let's head out Big Nepsy and Syncsy!"

"Syncsy?" Sync repeated with an amused look. "Well, I guess it's better than the nicknames all the other CPUs had for me." He gave a soft chuckle before addressing Uzume and Big Nep in a slightly more serious tone. "By the way, I'm sensing a large animal blocking our path to the exit. I think it'd be better if I just warp us out of here without-"

"A wild animal? Pffft. There's no need to worry about something like that," the red-haired CPU waved off. "Just leave this to good ol' Uzume! I'll take care of this in a flash and then you'll see just how cool and awesome I am!"

Without waiting for a response, Uzume enthusiastically charged off ahead by herself.

"Um, Sync?" Big Nep asked after a moment. "What _exactly_ did you sense out there?"

Sync answered with an innocent smile. "Oh, just a bear. A ten foot giant cave bear to be exact."

It did not take long for Uzume's terrified screams to echo throughout the cave.

* * *

 **For those of you who have never played Skyrim before, the train is a direct reference to the infamous Thomas the Tank Engine mod. For a medieval fantasy world, Skyrim's locomotive sciences are pretty far advanced. XD**


	19. I Used to Be an Adventurer Like You

**Ch 19: I Used to Be an Adventurer Like You**

"Well... I'll give you a point on the coolness scale for taking down a giant bear with nothing more than a megaphone and your _bare_ fists. Of course, I'll have to deduct two points for all the terrified shrieking you did while fighting it."

Uzume just groaned at Sync's comment and pun as she continued to stagger down the forest path the group was traveling on.

For lack of a better description, the CPU looked exactly like what one would expect from someone who had just been mauled by a very large bear. Surprisingly, her clothes were still mostly intact though there were numerous scratches, tears, bite-marks, and various other tooth-and-claw related injuries covering the rest of her. None of them were too serious but combined with her disheveled hair, she currently looked like some sort of rugged mountain barbarian. The fact that she was wearing the gigantic pelt of her former opponent like a makeshift cloak only served to reinforce that image.

"You two could've helped out instead of just watching you know," Uzume grumbled.

"You had it under control," Big Nep said, a cheerful smile on her face. "Besides, didn't you say you've always wanted to try wrestling a bear one-on-one before?"

Uzume just gave another disgruntled groan to this as she adjusted her bear-skin cloak.

The group walked on in silence for a while before Big Nep suddenly gave a cry of surprise.

"Ah! I forgot to pack extra pudding for this adventure!"

Uzume simply sweat-dropped at the false alarm while Sync gave a laugh.

"We can always just use our Synchronized Formation Skill, Ms. Neptune," Sync reminded. "Although, I can't guarantee it'll work with the amount of shares I currently have."

Big Nep shook her head to this. "Don't strain yourself. You're still recovering, remember? Plus, I have a few cups of emergency pudding that I can use to survive for the time being."

"Synchronized Formation Skill?" Uzume asked, a confused expression on her face. "What's that all about?"

"Oh, that's right," Big Nep said, snapping her fingers as if just remembering something. "We forgot to tell you about what happened with the fan riot while you were gone."

The next several minutes went by as Big Nep summarized the major events that took place in Lastation with Sync correcting her whenever she began to over-exaggerate some of the parts.

"...and then my teddy bear heroically sacrificed himself to restore peace and order to the war-torn wasteland that Lastation had become."

"I used my Philosopher's Stone to fix up all the collateral damage and passed out from the strain," Sync translated before finishing off the retelling himself. "Apparently, sis carried me back home after that. I was out for nearly two days before I was well enough to call up Ms. Neptune and follow after you to take part in your epic dragon-slaying quest. And now, here we are."

It probably said a lot about just how much weirdness Uzume had been exposed to during her lifetime as she did not look the slightest bit surprised or confused by everything she had just heard. Instead, she simply took in all of this with a nod of understanding.

"Sounds like I missed one heck of a party," she said with a wide grin. "But man, that Synchronization ability of yours sounds pretty neat. Say, you think you can try using it with me right now?"

Sync gave a teasing smile at that. "Sorry but it only works with cool people. And you're currently only at a six point eight on the coolness scale after that bear fight."

"What?! Oh, come on! I'm definitely just as cool as Big Nepsy and the twins!" Uzume practically whined.

Sync and Big Nep shared a laugh at her reaction before they both comforted the crestfallen CPU with a pat on the back.

"I'm just messing with you," Sync said. "The real reason I can't Synchronize with you is because we need at least a Lily Rank of five for it to work. Plus, I don't think I can even use that ability in this dimension anyways. This place is rather far away from the Hyperdimension and I'm only getting enough shares to use my basic abilities like my spatial powers."

"So you too huh?" Uzume mumbled, remembering her inability to transform in this world.

After taking a moment to fully recover from not being called cool, the red-haired CPU asked the question that had been bugging her for a while.

"By the way, Big Nepsy. How _did_ you manage to follow me here? I mean, even I don't know where we are right now since I kinda just flew through a random portal and ended up here."

"Oh, that's simple!" Big Nep answered. "You have the same energy signature as the old console you used to be trapped in so I just had Crostie bring up our old search settings for it and used that to find you!"

 _'Stop making me sound like some kind of crappy GPS!'_ Croire complained, completely forgetting about her own declaration of ignoring them. _'I'm an all-knowing tome that deserves to be treated with proper respect!'_

Big Nep just laughed at this much to her captive's irritation. Before Croire could go on an expletive-filled rant though, the village the group had been traveling towards finally came into view.

"About time!" Uzume said, immediately perking up at the sight of their goal. "Now we can finally get this quest started for real!"

Without wasting a second, the CPU eagerly ran ahead while her two followers leisurely trailed behind her.

"Man, talk about old-fashioned," Uzume commented as she entered the village proper. Even compared to her own era, the place looked positively medieval with its wooden buildings, outdoor blacksmith workshop, a lumber mill powered by a water wheel, and various farm animals running about in the open. While she had been too busy worrying for her life in the last village to really take note of it, she now had the chance to fully take in and admire the picturesque rural setting that this dimension had to offer.

"Uzume! Don't go too far ahead!" Big Nep called out as she and Sync neared the village entrance.

"Don't worry Big Nepsy! I won't-"

Not looking where she was going, Uzume accidentally ended up kicking one of the chickens that had strayed onto the main road.

 _'Bah-kawww!'_

The loud squawk was all the warning the CPU had before the chicken... exploded. With a force comparable to a particularly irate Bomb-Omb detonating itself, the massive fiery blast immediately sent Uzume sailing straight into the sky like a rocket.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

After nearly a full minute of air time, the poor CPU finally ended up landing face-first into a bush right next to her gaping teammates.

"Did that... chicken just explode?" Big Nep eventually asked, turning to glance at the large patch of scorched earth that the poultry had left behind in the village center.

"Um... yeah," Sync confirmed, looking just as weirded out by this as his mentor. "I'm pretty sure it just did."

Turning back to Uzume, they found that only her legs were currently visible as the rest of her remained unmoving inside the bush. Deciding to help out their unofficial party leader before trying to make sense of the situation, Big Nep and Sync each grabbed onto one of her still-smoking appendages before yanking her out of the foliage.

"Buh... Wha... What in the world... was that?" Uzume asked in a daze, her share energy apparently having protected her from the worst of the blast.

 _'You just ran into one of the reasons why I hate this stupid ass place,'_ Croire said irritably. _'If it isn't the exploding chickens that kill you, it's the blood-thirsty psychotic villagers who try to murder you afterwards for 'harming' one of their precious farm animals.'_

"Wait. What do you mean blood-thirsty psychotic villagers?" Sync asked.

His question was soon answered when a massive crowd of people suddenly gathered together near the scorched remains of where the chicken had been and glared daggers at them.

"Hey! That was a valuable animal!" one of the generic villagers shouted.

"The penalty for chicken murder is death!" the town blacksmith - who happened to be a look-alike of Tamsoft - yelled, pulling out a gigantic warhammer as the crowd around her pulled out their own various weapons as well.

"Blood for the Chicken Gods!" a clone of Arfoire shouted, brandishing a large eggplant with bloodlust gleaming in her eyes.

Uzume and her group slowly started backing away as the massive mob began to approach them.

"So... any ideas on what we should do?" Sync asked nervously.

Uzume gave a loud gulp as even the village dog joined in on the mad crowd with a flaming torch in its mouth.

"Run," she eventually managed to squeak out.

Big Nep gave a quick nod. "Yeah. Running sounds like a good plan."

With that, the brave heroes turned tail and fled for the hills as the murderous villagers stormed after them.

* * *

"I think... we lost them..." Uzume panted out, still looking around fearfully as if expecting to see one of the villagers pop out of the ground or something.

Sync just gave a tired groan as he lay sprawled out on the ground.

"In hindsight... I really should have... just teleported us away."

Big Nep managed to let out a weak laugh in between gasping for air. "Heh... heh... those villagers... would have... gotten you... before you could have... prepared your jump."

The three of them turned silent after that as they all tried to recover their breath. As for Croire, she seemed to have gone back to ignoring the group. Not that anyone was really complaining about that.

After a few minutes, Uzume spoke up again as she straightened out her thick cloak.

"Man, I feel kinda sorry for those bandits outside. If they hadn't distracted those crazy chicken cultists, we never would've been able to slip into this weird cave area."

Sync gave a shrug as he picked himself up. "Eh, they're bandits. They're kinda there to serve as combat fodder anyways." He paused to properly take in the intricate stone cavern they were resting in. "And I think this is actually some sort of ancient tomb. I doubt those bandits made these stone sculptures and carvings and I can sense a bunch of booby traps and coffins lying around further inside."

"Ooh! I've always wanted to explore a real-life tomb!" Big Nep said enthusiastically. She pulled out her pistol as she struck a pose. "Just call me Lara Nep, Tomb Raider!"

Sync gave a laugh to this while Uzume just looked down the path leading further into the darkness with a worried look.

"We... probably don't need to go any further in," she said, trying to hide her rather obvious fear. "Syncsy can just warp us out of here now that we lost those villagers."

Sync gave a knowing grin at this. "What's the matter Uzume? Don't tell me you're scared of the dark."

The red-haired CPU let out a scoff as she tried to maintain her tough image. "Wh... What are you talking about? I've lived in a post-apocalyptic world with barely any lighting for most of my life! Of course I'm not scared of the dark!"

"Alright then," Sync said, smile still on his face. "Since you're fine with it, we'll explore this place a bit more. Who knows, maybe we'll even find some rare treasure in here that'll help us on our quest."

"Yeah! This is going to be fun!" Big Nep said, choosing to lead the way with her pistol in hand.

Still looking rather scared but not wanting to admit it, Uzume reluctantly followed along as Sync walked up next to her with an amused look.

"By the way, I'm taking off a point on your coolness scale every time you let out a terrified scream in here."

Uzume managed to let out a scoff to this. "Pffft. Like I'd ever do something that uncool."

* * *

"AAAAAAAHH! GIANT SPIDERS!"

* * *

"YAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! ZOMBIES!"

* * *

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! ZOMBIES RIDING GIANT SPIDERS!"

* * *

"AAAAAAAAHHHH-!"

"Uzume, relax. That's just you're shadow."

"Oh... er... sorry about that Big Nepsy. I just thought-"

"By the way, there's a giant zombie spider right behind you."

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

"You know, all things considered, I think that went better than expected," Sync said, deactivating his Share Blade as the zombie spider finally went down.

Uzume's only response to this was to crumple onto the ground in a nervous wreck.

"Don't worry. I got her," Big Nep said, putting away her pistol and rushing forward to offer her friend some anti-anxiety medicine.

Sync stifled a laugh as he walked over to inspect the treasure chest that the zombie spider had been guarding.

"Ugh... Did we at least find something to make this trip worth it?" Uzume asked, her medication kicking in almost instantly.

Sync gave a shrug as he began pulling out the chest's contents. "Hmm... well, there's an enchanted iron helmet that'll let us carry more things, a handful of gold coins that I'm guessing is the currency in this world, three lockpicks, a dozen rusty arrows, a random slice of cheese, and a wooden spoon." Finding nothing else inside, he lifted up the spoon and began to scrutinize it more closely to see if there was anything special about it.

In the meantime, Uzume walked forward and picked up the twin-horned iron helmet. After looking it over and finding the inside to be surprisingly clean, she put on the armor piece and looked over at Big Nep with an expectant smile.

"So? How do I look?" she asked. "Do I look more like an awesome legendary warrior?"

"You look like a viking," Big Nep said, not fully managing to hold in her laughter. Noticing her friend's embarrassed reaction, she quickly corrected herself with a wide grin. "Aw don't be like that. Vikings are really cool. I bet even Sync will admit that you look really awesome right now."

"Eh, I'll add a zero point two to your score to even things out to a solid two," he said, chuckling to himself when Uzume wilted at the mention of her current standing.

Apparently finding nothing noteworthy about the spoon, Sync began stuffing the rest of the items into his inventory (including the cheese) before standing up and dusting off his hands.

"Well, I think it's about time I warped us out of here. I can sense the tomb going further in but Uzume's probably going to have another nervous breakdown at the rate we're going."

The CPU immediately tried to deny this. "H... Hey! That's not-"

"Of course, if you really want, we could continue exploring this entire place," Sync added, a mischievous smile forming on his face.

"Er... no thanks." Uzume quickly backtracked. "I think I've had enough tomb raiding for the day."

"Are you sure?" Sync pressed, his smile widening. "We won't be able to see the giant rats I'm sensing down there then."

Uzume gave a high-pitched scream to this as she reverted to her Orange Heart personality. "Kyaaaaaa! Get Uzume out of this dark and creepy place!"

Letting out a laugh at his successful teasing, Sync focused his energy before finally teleporting his equally amused mentor and shivering team leader out of the tomb.

Unbeknownst to them, another figure walked into the room soon after they had disappeared.

"Huh. Another dead enemy," the newcomer said, her face hidden in the shadows though her voice sounded extremely familiar. After kicking the unmoving zombie spider to make sure it really was dead (or as dead as a zombie could be), she gave a shrug. "Well, guess it doesn't matter. Just means this quest is that much easier for me."

With that, the unknown adventurer continued onward.

* * *

"Yay! I missed you Mr. Sun! Uzume promises to never leave you ever again!"

"Um... Is she going to be like that for a while?" Sync asked, watching their party leader happily frolicking about in the wide-open field while basking in the warm sunlight.

"Give her a few minutes," Big Nep answered. Saying that, she quietly pulled out her phone and snapped a few pictures of the rather hilarious image of Uzume in a viking helmet and bear-skin cloak prancing about in the fields like an overly happy puppy.

True to Big Nep's words, Uzume went back to her usual tomboy attitude a few moments later as she walked back to her teammates with a thoroughly embarrassed look.

"Let's... not talk about that," she muttered, her face almost as red as her hair.

Sync and Big Nep decided to show a rare bout of mercy to their leader as they complied with her wishes. Even so, they could not hold back from snickering a bit which caused the poor CPU to bury her face in her hands in shame.

"Well, now that we're out of that tomb, what should we do?" Sync eventually asked, stifling the last of his laughter.

Big Nep gave a final giggle of her own before answering. "We still need info on where our dragon is so we should probably look for another village to ask around in."

This finally snapped Uzume out of her embarrassment as she lowered her hands and gave a frightened shiver. "Please no," she said, not even bothering to hide her fear this time. "I don't want to deal with any more exploding chickens or crazy villagers."

"Don't worry!" Big Nep assured. "Sync and I will make sure to keep an eye out for any stray chickens that try to cross the road this time. That way, you won't accidentally run into one and blow up!"

Uzume did not seem entirely convinced by this as she tried to raise an objection. Before she could do so, however, her stomach let out a growl so fierce that both Big Nep and Sync looked at her bear-skin cloak to see if it had somehow come back to life.

"Eh heh heh... why don't we grab some grub first?" the CPU said sheepishly. "I haven't eaten since getting here and I'm famished."

Big Nep seemed prepared for this as she quickly looked through her inventory to see what food items she had.

"Oops," she said after a moment, her expression quickly matching her friend's embarrassed look. "Looks like I forgot to restock on food supplies after my last camping trip. The only thing I have is three cups of instant curry noodles."

Sync dug through his inventory as well before pulling out the cheese he had recently obtained with a shrug. "Well-aged tomb cheese anyone?"

Uzume loudly expressed her disappointment at her given options.

"Gah! I can't survive off of instant noodles and cheese!" she yelled. "I need something more filling, like meat! Lots and lots of meat!"

As she said that, a large deer casually strolled by in front of them. Almost immediately, Uzume's expression turned predatory as she began to salivate.

"Mmm... deer steak..."

The deer quite obviously sensed the danger it was in as it quickly turned tail and ran.

"Wait! Come back!" Uzume yelled, chasing after her prey with a hungry gleam in her eyes. "I just want to eat you!"

As Uzume and the deer disappeared over a nearby hill, Big Nep gave a loud sigh.

"When will she learn that bad things happen to her whenever she runs ahead by herself like that?" she lamented.

Sync answered with an amused grin. "You have to admit it's a lot of fun to watch though. As for the current situation, I'm going to bet she'll come running back in a few minutes while being chased by a giant wolf."

Not to anyone's surprise, a familiar terrified yell was heard moments later. As the duo watched, Uzume came running back into view with a large saber-tooth tiger hot behind her heels.

"Eh, close enough," Sync said with a shrug. "Still, I'm kinda surprised Uzume's so scared of a single tiger like that. It's barely the size of the bear she fought and-."

He paused as he realized that something was rather off about the picture. Rather than chasing after Uzume like he originally thought, the saber-tooth tiger seemed to be simply running for its life in the same direction that Uzume was.

"What in the-?"

"RUUUUUUN!" Uzume shouted, interrupting Sync's question as she neared her party members. "DEMON RABBIT!"

Right on cue, a small fluffy brown rabbit crested over the hill and came into view.

"Awww," Big Nep cooed. "What a cute little bu-"

" **I WILL FEAST ON YOUR HEART!"**

Both of Uzume's followers felt their jaws drop open in surprise as the rabbit shouted this out in a deep demonic voice. Before they could react any further, the demon rabbit jumped nearly a hundred meters through the air before landing directly on top of the fleeing tiger. As Big Nep and Sync watched in horror, the rabbit somehow managed to bring down the much larger animal with its pounce before it began to make good on its threat by devouring its unfortunate prey.

"RUUUUUUUUUN!" Uzume repeated, not bothering to slow down in the least as she ran past her teammates.

Big Nep and Sync continued to stay frozen in shock for a moment as they witnessed the slaughter happening in front of them. That all changed though when the blood-covered rabbit perked up and glared directly at them.

" **I SMELL WEAKNESS! ARE YOU PREPARED FOR YOUR DEATH?!"**

That was all the prompting the two needed before they followed Uzume's lead and ran for their lives.

* * *

"Demon rabbits, spider-riding zombies, exploding chickens, flying trains... I think I'm starting to see why Croire hates this place so much."

The tome-fairy gave a scoff at Sync's words. _'Please. You haven't even seen anything yet. Try being stuck in this place for an entire year like I was then we'll talk.'_

Uzume let out something that sounded a lot like a whimper as she looked towards Big Nep.

"Can we just go home already?" she asked, a hint of pleading in her voice. "We can just tell everyone that we killed the dragon and get out of this crazy place."

To her dismay, Big Nep simply laughed at the suggestion as she continued to set up a tent under the large rocky alcove that the group had stopped in after losing the demon rabbit. Considering the dimensional traveler's lifestyle and hobby, it came as no surprise that Big Nep carried around her camping kit wherever she went.

"Where's your sense of adventure, Uzume?" she asked, putting the finishing touches on the tent while Sync set up the portable stove and camping lanterns in the meantime.

"It got blown up by that exploding chicken," the CPU responded in a mumble.

Big Nep and Sync both managed to hear this as they let out a laugh at the comment. Seeing how lighthearted and cheerful her companions were, Uzume could not help but feel her spirits rise a bit as well.

"Here," Sync said a moment later, handing Uzume a large metal pot. "You can go get some water for the noodles while we finish setting up here. I can sense a small stream past the hills to our right where you can fill it up."

"Can't you just teleport the water here?" Uzume asked as she took the utensil. "And also, why are we setting up camp so early? The sun's only setting right now."

Sync answered with a smile. "I think it's better for you to have something to do other than sitting around and moping like Nepgear all day. As for your other question, well, do you really want to wander around this place when night falls?"

Uzume gave a shudder at the thought of whatever strange horrors would appear in the dark before quickly setting off to complete her task.

After a bit of a trek, the CPU found the stream that Sync had mentioned as she quickly scanned the area for any potential dangers. After spotting nothing more than a dozen oddly-shaped rocks in the vicinity, she let out a sigh of relief as she neared the water.

"Whew. Looks like I'm finally able to catch a break from-"

"Pardon me dear lady. But I am afraid this is private property."

As Uzume gave a cry of shock at the unexpected voice, the rocks around her suddenly seemed to come to life. As she watched with wide eyes, the 'rocks' raised themselves out of the surrounding mud and revealed themselves to actually be a bunch of large, gray-colored crabs that were, for some odd reason, all wearing top hats and monocles.

"Wha... What are you?" Uzume eventually managed to ask when the posh-looking crabs did not immediately attack her.

"Ah, let me first offer my sincerest apologies for frightening you," the largest crab of the bunch answered, his voice sounding very reminiscent of Umio's gentlemanly manner of speech. "As for who and what we are, we are but simple mudcrabs who own this humble stream and its surrounding estate."

There were many ways that Uzume could have chosen to respond to this but she opted to go for the simplest of the bunch: giving a completely weirded out nod.

"Oookay... well, it was nice meeting you all but I think I'm just gonna take some water and be on my way now."

"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that," the mudcrab said, its tone taking on a bit of an edge. "You see, you are currently trespassing within our territory and we must kindly ask that you leave at once."

"C'mon, it's only a bit of water," Uzume shrugged off as she took another step forward.

The moment she did so, she felt a sharp nip at her heels.

"Ow!" Uzume shouted, looking down finding that the lead mudcrab had just clipped her with its large pincer. "What was that for?!"

"You have chosen to disregard my warning and thus must pay the price!" the mudcrab leader declared, holding up its pincers menacingly as the rest of its brethren did the same. "Now prepare yourself, foul water brigand! Have at thee!"

* * *

"Wow! Where did you get all these crab legs from Uzume?"

The CPU managed to give her friend a smile despite looking like she had just been put through a large paper shredder.

"I won 'em in a duel," she said enigmatically, placing the pot filled with giant crab legs and pincers on the stove.

"Looks like you forgot to bring any water to boil them in though," Sync casually noted, looking completely unsurprised by any of this. (As it was, he had actually been tracking Uzume with his powers the whole time to make sure she was safe and ended up sensing everything that had happened down at the stream.)

Uzume gave a loud groan as she facepalmed at her oversight.

"I knew I forgot something! Ugh, just give me a few minutes. I'll go get the water."

"Heh, it's fine," Sync waved off. "I'll get it instead seeing as how you managed to supply us with our dinner."

With that said, he concentrated for a bit before teleporting over a large sphere of water which he rather clumsily dumped into the pot.

"Sorry!" he quickly apologized as the excess water splashed onto everyone's feet. "I'm still a bit shaky when it comes to teleporting non-solid objects."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it!" Big Nep said, swiftly entering her encouraging mentor mode. "Practice makes perfect after all!"

Sync gave her a grateful smile before organizing all of the crab legs and pincers so that they were all fully inside the cooking pot and submerged in the water.

"Man, I wish I had the power to control space as well," Uzume said longingly, watching Sync telekinetically turn on both the magic-powered portable stove and the camping lights around them at the same time. "It's such a rad ability to have."

Big Nep gave a chuckle to this as she pulled out her travel case of spices and began adding the proper amount of seasoning into the soon-to-be broth.

"I really don't think you should try to give yourself that ability by daydreaming about it," she warned. "Knowing your luck so far, you'd probably end up being able to only teleport a bunch of those demon rabbits to your side."

Uzume, who had been half-way into the process of entering her daydream mode, quickly unclasped her hands as she gave a fearful shudder.

"Good point. The last thing I want is to end up becoming rabbit food."

The three shared a nervous laugh at this before quickly glancing around to make sure there were no killer bunnies in their vicinity.

Finding themselves to be in the clear, the group finally relaxed as they fell into a comfortable silence while sitting around the cooking pot. As they waited for their meal to finish cooking, the last rays of the sun disappeared from the sky as night fully fell across the foreign land.

"Whoa," Uzume suddenly said after a moment. "Yo guys, check out the sky."

Big Nep and Sync followed their leader's gaze upwards and found their mouths opening in amazement.

High above them, a vast and beautiful aurora shone through the sky as its multi-colored ribbons of light highlighted the vast sea of sparkling stars in the background. A pair of large red moons added to all of this as they gave off an ephemeral glow that served to enhance the already gorgeous backdrop. To top it all off, the tall snow-capped mountains in the distance framed the heavenly lights to provide a view that could only be described as breathtaking.

"It's beautiful," Big Nep eventually said, having never seen such a sight even in all her travels.

Sync gave a nod as his eyes remained fixed on the magnificent view. "Almost makes everything we went through today worth it."

After taking in the sight for a little while longer, Uzume gave a content sigh.

"Man, I almost forgot how great it is to camp out in the open and go star-gazing like this." After a brief pause, she continued on in a cheerful tone. "You know, we should really do something like this again in the future. Er, I mean the camping and star-gazing bit, not the horrible going-on-a-killer-quest part."

Big Nep gave a laugh as she looked down to glance at Sync. "Another camping trip sounds fun. Maybe next time we can even invite Vert to come with us."

For some odd reason, Sync's peaceful smile fell away at the mention of his sister as he seemed to shift about uneasily. Before Big Nep could figure out if she was merely seeing things or not, Sync had his smile back on as he gave an amused laugh.

"I'm pretty sure there's a higher chance of you and mini-Nep swearing off pudding forever than getting sis to voluntarily leave her MMO behind in favor of going camping."

Big Nep let out a small chuckle to this as she decided to overlook the strange reaction she thought she had seen from him earlier.

"Oh, come on. I'm sure we can get her to come with us if we bribe her with enough food. Didn't you say she's secretly a big glutton?"

"Speaking of food, I think the crabs are ready," Uzume interrupted, grabbing the individual bowls that Big Nep had laid out beforehand with great gusto. "Dibs on the biggest pincer and legs!"

Laughing at Uzume's behavior, Big Nep and Sync ended their conversation as they went over to serve up their dinner. As it turned out, the older Neptune was a much better cook than her younger counterpart - who could barely manage to cook herself a riceball on the best of days - as the improvised crab soup turned out to be simple yet positively delicious.

With good food and good company, the three travelers soon felt all of their stress and pains from the day fade away. As the night rolled on, the group happily passed their time sharing jokes and silly stories with each other as the bright sounds of their laughter echoed out into the starlit sky.

* * *

A bit of a ways off, the mysterious adventurer from before was making her way down the main road when she heard the laughter coming from the trio of camping travelers in the far distance.

"Heh. Sounds like they're having a lot of fun," she said to herself, a wistful smile visible underneath the hooded cloak she had apparently picked up from the tomb and now wore. While she was tempted to go over and join the travelers in their merrymaking, she decided that her current quest was too important for her to simply stop to make some new friends.

"Maybe next time," she sighed, turning back to the road in front of her. She had barely gone more than a few steps, however, when she suddenly found her path blocked by a small fluffy rabbit.

" **ANOTHER WHO SEEKS DEATH! FALL BEFORE-!"**

The demonic bunny did not get a chance to finish as the adventurer simply walked up and punted it into the horizon where it disappeared with a pitiful twinkle.

Without even a break in her stride, the adventurer began humming a rather familiar theme song as she casually continued down the road that seemed to go forever on.


	20. Cheese for Everyone!

**Ch 20: Cheese for Everyone!**

Uzume woke up with a loud yawn as the early rays of the morning sun filtered into the tent she was in. After rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she slowly sat up and let her gaze wander around to make sure that no monsters or demon rabbits had tried to barge in during the night. Judging from the fact that the place looked relatively intact, she guessed that Sync's theory about her plot protection keeping away any dangers while they slept had been correct. Of course, the four cans of monster repellent that they had judiciously sprayed around their tent probably also had something to do with this.

Looking next to her, Uzume saw that Big Nep was sprawled out inside her sleeping bag and still fast asleep. Giving a soft chuckle at her friend's sleepy mumbling about meeting some kind of pudding king, she looked over to check up on the third member of their party. To her surprise, she found that Sync was missing as the extra sleeping bag he had borrowed from Big Nep was already neatly rolled up and tucked away into the far end of the tent where her helmet and bear-skin cloak had been stored away as well.

Uzume gave a frown as she wondered when he had gotten up. Sync had been rather hesitant about sharing a tent with the two older girls the night before – stating that it was rather improper for him to do so - but after Uzume had told him that she did not mind in the slightest and Big Nep promised not to glomp him in his sleep, he had finally relented. The fact that there was also plenty of room for all three of them inside the large tent (Big Nep had recently bought a larger one after Uzume had accidentally set fire to her old tent during their previous camping trip) helped seem to further ease the boy's mind over the matter. Still, it was not hard to imagine him slipping out of the tent as soon as she and Big Nep were asleep in order to keep watch outside instead. She knew that was what she would have done if she had been rather embarrassed by her own sleeping arrangements.

Moving as quietly as she could in order to not disturb her friend, Uzume got out of her own sleeping bag before pulling open the tent flap and walking outside. After letting her eyes adjust to the light, she looked around and was relieved to find that the rest of their camping site was just as untouched as their tent. Taking a moment to breathe in the crisp morning air to fully wake herself up, she began looking about the area for any trace of Sync.

She did not have to search for very long as she soon found him sitting on top of a rocky outcropping just a couple meters away.

"Yo, Syncsy!" Uzume greeted with a wave as she walked over to join him. "You weren't out here all night, were you?"

Sync did not immediately answer as he remained silent with an oddly pensive look on his face. It was not until Uzume reached him and was about to repeat her question that he chose to reply.

"I woke up just a couple minutes before you did," he said, his expression still set in a neutral frown. "Thought I'd use the chance to get some fresh air and do some thinking."

"Thinking about what?"

After waiting a few seconds and receiving no further elaborations, Uzume gave a shrug and sat down next to him.

For a couple minutes, the two sat in silence as they simply observed the vast plains that was visible from their vantage point. The hilly terrain was quite a sight to see as the rising sun cast a golden glow over the grassy landscape that seemed to stretch on forever. Numerous deer were seen roaming the plains as they peacefully grazed for food in the early hours. Luckily, it seemed none of the deadly predators of the world were awake yet as there were no sign of any giant bears, tigers, wolves or demon rabbits around. There was, however, a flying train circling the peaks of a faraway mountain but it seemed content with simply patrolling its supposed territory as it showed no sign of descending onto the plains below.

"You know," Sync eventually said, apparently breaking out of his thoughts. "There's been something I've been meaning to ask ever since I learned about you."

"Hm? And what's that?"

"Well... Is it true that you almost destroyed all of Gamindustri before?"

"What?!" Uzume blurted out, completely caught off-guard by the unexpected question. After taking a moment to (somewhat) compose herself, she hastily provided an answer.

"That wasn't me! It was Kurome! She's the one who wanted to smoosh the dimensions together and end the world!" She paused as a half-thoughtful, half-guilty look crossed her face. "Well... I kinda guess I am Kurome now seeing as how we sorta fused back together and all. But we were still two different people back then so it doesn't count!"

A faint smile appeared back on Sync's face as he gave an amused snort. After giving the flustered CPU a chance to fully calm herself, he elaborated his question.

"I was actually talking about before all that," he clarified. "Back when you were still the CPU of Planeptune."

Uzume's lighthearted demeanor immediately disappeared at this as she fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Oh. That," she murmured. "I'd rather not-"

She stopped when she noticed that Sync had turned his full attention towards her and was now staring at her with an expectant gleam in his eyes. Realizing that the boy had only really heard about her through second-hand explanations and trivia up until now, she decided it would not hurt to play along and properly explain herself to him.

"I... didn't have as much control over my reality-changing powers back then," she hesitantly explained, pushing down the mix of emotions she felt at recalling her past. "The power to change reality sounds pretty neat until you realize just how bad things can get if you don't know how to properly use it."

"What do you mean?"

Uzume gave a wince before replying with a guilty look.

"Hordes of monsters popping out of nowhere, natural disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes appearing in places they shouldn't, entire sections of the land just disappearing without a trace; it's easy to see why everyone started to both fear and hate me. Looking back on it now, I guess it's no surprise that some of the more radical groups even went so far as to try and kill me."

Sync stayed quiet as he took all this in with a solemn expression. After a rather awkward bout of silence between the two, he looked back up to her with a questioning gaze.

"So why did you seal yourself away?" he asked. "Or rather, how? If what I read and heard about you is true, then you must have already been slipping into your Kurome persona by then. I don't understand how you managed to hold back your increasing hatred for the world and willingly imprisoned yourself instead."

Uzume thought long and hard about this question as she looked back on her past memories and feelings. Eventually, a faint smile appeared on her face as she came up with a suitable answer.

"It's still hard for me to clearly recall my thoughts from back then but... I think I can guess why. It's cuz I didn't want to give up on my mission."

"Your mission?" Sync asked, raising a questioning eyebrow.

Uzume gave a nod. "Yeah. You know how everyone has a mission in life? Well, mine was to protect my people and to make sure they could live a happy and peaceful life. I'd already failed to protect someone close to me at that point and I wasn't going to let something like that happen again. I think the 'me' of that time felt some of that responsibility as well even with her growing hatred and madness. That's probably what allowed her to make that final decision to lock herself away before she completely lost herself. And... that's probably why my current personality was split apart from her later as well. After all, I wasn't ever going to give up on my mission, even if the person I had to defeat to accomplish it was myself."

She stopped to look down at her hand before clenching it into a determined fist.

"That still hasn't changed you know," she declared firmly. "My mission, I mean. I might be the ruler of a different dimension now but I'll still give it my all to protect both it and Planeptune. I might have messed up before but I'll definitely show everyone just how much of an awesome CPU I can really be!"

Though she did not notice it, Sync had started gazing at her with something very much like respect in his eyes.

"Your mission in life, huh?"

Quietly muttering this to himself, Sync turned his gaze back to the plains. Whatever internal debate he had been having earlier seemed to finally reach a conclusion thanks to Uzume's statement as he gave a short, resolute nod to himself a few moments later.

"Nine points," he suddenly said, getting back up as Uzume turned to look at him in confusion.

"What?"

"That's what I'm raising your current coolness score to."

Before Uzume could figure out how to respond to this, he turned around and began heading back towards their tent.

"For the record," he called out behind him, "I think you're already an awesome CPU even without trying so hard to look cool all the time."

Uzume was definitely taken aback by the unexpected praise as she could not hide the blush that appeared on her face. It did not take long for her to recover though as she got up as well and quickly chased after him.

"Hey, why only a nine?" she shouted out. "If you already think I'm awesome, why not just give that full ten points already?"

Sync's only response to this was to give a cheerful laugh.

* * *

The three adventurers were all packed up and back on the road an hour later as they continued towards their next objective in high spirits.

"So how much further till the next village?" Big Nep asked with a smile.

Sync paused a bit to reach out with his powers before answering with a shrug.

"Kind of hard to say. I don't know if it's just this dimension or my lack of shares but my spatial senses are a bit blurry here. There's a large number of objects moving about near what I'm guessing is a few buildings several miles up this road so I'm assuming that's another village. Of course, knowing this place, I could just be sensing an unusually large wolf pack roaming around a bunch of house-shaped rocks instead."

Uzume (who was back in her iron helmet and bear-skin cloak) gave a nervous laugh to this.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," she said rather uncertainly. "Just to be safe though, we should probably walk there normally to see what's coming instead of just teleporting there directly."

Her two followers seemed fine with this plan as they both nodded in agreement.

After several minutes of walking, the group found to their relief that the place Sync had sensed was in fact a small village full of regular people. The thing that really got Uzume's attention though was the fact that this village apparently kept all of their chickens in a fenced off area next to one of the farmhouses.

"Yes!" Uzume cheered upon seeing the locked up poultry. "You're not blowing up anyone today you foul... um... fowls! Stay inside that prison like you deserve!"

This garnered quite a few odd looks from the nearby villagers but the CPU was too busy celebrating to notice.

"Well, guess we should start asking around to see if anyone's spotted a giant doomsday dragon flying by recently," Sync said cheerfully. "It'll probably be faster if we split up for now and-."

"Ooh! Dibs on the tavern!" Uzume interrupted enthusiastically, spotting the large building at the center of the village. "That's always where the most important quests and information are in an adventure game!"

"I'll question the town guards in the meantime," Big Nep offered cheerfully.

"I suppose that leaves me with the passing travelers and local farmers then," Sync finished. "Alright, we'll meet back up here at the village entrance in half an hour. Just make sure to watch yourselves. With how things have been going so far, I wouldn't be surprised if a chair tries to eat one of us or something."

Uzume let out a laugh to this. "Ha! Eaten by a chair. Even in a place like this, that seems-"

"Oh, it's a very real possibility," a passing village woman who happened to hear their conversation warned. "I had a sister who was eaten by one of those wooden menaces several years ago. I always did warn her to watch out for those Werechairs during her travels."

Giving a sad sigh, the woman walked away leaving three extremely weirded out and terrified adventurers behind. Deciding it was probably better for their sanity not to question any of this, the three of them silently parted ways as they decided to busy themselves with their investigations instead.

* * *

"Are you going to sit down anytime soon?"

Uzume ignored the bartender as she continued to glare down at the wooden stool in front of her as if waiting for it to attack her.

"It's not a Werechair if that's what you're worried about," the bartender laughed. "I've been regularly inspecting all of the chairs ever since the last ambush two years ago. Besides, those things generally only attack during the night anyways."

After patting down the wooden furniture one last time to make sure it really was safe, Uzume hesitantly sat down on it.

"How do you people live in this world?" she let out with a groan. "Everything seems to either want to kill you or eat you."

The bartender simply gave a shrug. "Eh, you get used to it."

Taking pity on the obvious newcomer, he offered her a complimentary mug of root beer (which somehow existed in this bizarre medieval world) to cheer her up.

"Thanks," Uzume muttered before downing the entire thing in one go.

The bartender gave a small chuckle at the sight before returning to cleaning the rest of his mugs with a cloth.

"So," he said conversationally, "what's a wandering adventurer like you doing in our humble little village?"

Uzume lowered her mug and gave a loud burp (something that all cool people did, despite what Umio and Histoire said) before replying.

"I'm actually looking for a dragon. Have you seen one around these parts?"

"Plenty of those things around here," the bartender replied. "Haven't seen one for myself but a lot of travelers say they're found at the end of dungeons as bosses."

Uzume shook her head. "Not those kinds. The one I'm looking for is special. It's more realistic-looking with pointy black scales and an evil 'I'm going to kill everything' aura around it. It's kinda hard to miss. I was hoping you might have heard about someone who spotted it flying past recently."

The bartender seemed to think about this for a moment before answering.

"Sorry but can't say I've heard about anything like that. The most notable thing I've heard lately are a few rumors saying that the flying trains are returning." He shook his head at this with an amused snort. "Bah, a bunch of silly nonsense if you ask me. Everyone knows that the trains were all killed off ages ago."

Uzume gave a sigh as she realized she would not find any answers here.

"Well, thanks again for the drink pops," she said as she got back up. "Guess I'll have to keep searching elsewhere then."

"Ah, hold on a sec," the bartender interrupted, seemingly having remembered something. "Now that you mention it, I think I heard one of the guards talking about some kind of giant flying monster a few days back. Figured he was just talking about those trains like everyone else but it might have been that dragon you're looking for."

"Do you know where he is?" Uzume quickly asked, immediately perking up at the possibility of a potential information source.

"I'm pretty sure he was transferred to the nearby city recently," the bartender answered. "Best bet is to go there yourself and look for him. All you have to do is follow the main road west of here and you'll be there in about five plus one hours."

"Er, you mean six hours?" Uzume asked.

"What's a 'six'?"

Uzume just blinked back for a few seconds as she tried to figure out if the man was joking or not.

"You know, six," she eventually said. "The number that comes after five?"

The bartender gave a loud laugh to this causing the CPU to give a bewildered expression.

"Ha! A number after five! Now ain't that a hoot! Everyone knows the only numbers that exist are one, two, three, four, and five. Of course, there are some people who think that 'one' and 'two' are not actual numbers either but that's just ignorant drivel."

"Oookay then..." Uzume said, not really knowing how to respond to this weird revelation. "I'll just... be going then."

Leaving the still-chuckling bartender behind, Uzume walked out of the tavern feeling like she was missing the punchline to some form of odd joke.

* * *

 _Several minutes later..._

"So the numerical system of this world only goes up to five?" Sync asked once Uzume finished filling them in about her investigation. "Huh. Maybe that's why everything seems so medieval around here."

"Well, at least we now have some kind of lead," Big Nep said cheerily. "The guards I asked also said the same thing about one of their co-workers talking about a flying monster recently so it definitely checks out."

"By the way," Uzume suddenly said, turning her attention over to Sync. "What's with that weird staff you're holding?"

"Oh, this?" he said, holding out the weapon in his hand. The wooden staff could have easily been mistaken for a plain old walking stick if it had not been for the oddly detailed carving of what looked like a triangular slice of cheese placed at its top.

"I got it from a strange bearded man in a colorful suit," Sync explained. "I have to say, the guy could have probably given mini-Nep a run for her money when it came to going off on random tangents. Anyways, long story short, I offered him the cheese we found in the tomb yesterday and he gave me this staff. He said it was a prototype of his main artifact, whatever that meant."

"What's it do?" Big Nep asked curiously.

Sync gave a shrug. "All he said was that it would provide cheese for everyone. I haven't tested it out yet but-"

"Um, pardon me," a generic farmer interrupted, walking up to the group with a distressed expression. "You three are adventurers, correct?"

"Yup!" Uzume replied without hesitation. "The coolest and greatest adventurers ever!"

Rather than being put off by this introduction, the farmer instead let out a relieved sigh.

"Oh, thank the goddesses. I've been looking for capable people like you." Without giving his audience a chance to say anything, he continued on. "You see, my prized goat was stolen from me by a giant last night. I already asked the town guards for help but they refused to do anything saying that this was beyond their pay grade. As such, I was hoping the three of you could help me out instead. Of course, I'd be more than willing to pay you for your troubles if you do so."

"Hey, our first official side-quest!" Big Nep exclaimed excitedly. "I was wondering when we'd run into one of these! We should totally accept it!"

"I don't know," Sync said doubtfully. "This is probably a rather high-level quest if even the town guards refused it. And with how things have been going so far, I'd say it'd be safer if we-"

"We'll do it!" Uzume proclaimed, giving a large thumbs-up to the farmer. "As a true hero, it's my duty to help anyone in need!"

As the farmer began to express his thanks and filled them in on where they needed to go, Sync just gave a small sigh with a resigned smile on his face.

"Well, this should be amusing."

* * *

"You know," Uzume squeaked out, "When that farmer guy talked about a giant, I was expecting an over-sized caveman with a large club. Not... well, this."

Her two companions said nothing as they simply continued to stare open-mouthed at the five-story tall version of Blanc towering above them. Dressed in her usual white outfit (complete with her trademark muffin hat), the gigantic clone of the CPU silently glared down at the trio with her truck-sized hammer in hand. At her feet, a rather derpy-looking goat grazed about on the grassy hill they were all on without a care in the world.

"Well, good luck Uzume," Sync eventually said, slowly backing up from the giant Blanc with Big Nep doing the same next to him. "Ms. Neptune and I'll wait for you back down at the village."

"H...Hey!" Uzume cried out, looking back at her retreating teammates. "Don't leave me here alone! I don't want to get flattened by-"

Much to Sync and Big Nep's horror, Giant Blanc's eye gave off an ominous red glow as soon as the word 'flat' was uttered. Before Uzume even had a chance to turn back around, the giant CPU brought her hammer down.

" _WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH-!"_

Uzume suddenly found herself becoming the first goddess to transform into a satellite as the massive hammer smashed into the ground in front of her and created a shockwave strong enough to launch her into the sky. Her screams eventually faded away as she disappeared completely into the upper stratosphere.

Unfortunately, Giant Blanc's rage did not seem to be sated with Uzume as she turned her still furious gaze towards the two remaining adventurers. Before either of them could do anything, the giant CPU began to charge towards them with her over-sized hammer held high over her head.

"Run!" Big Nep yelled.

Sync, however, had other ideas. Acting mostly out of panic, he waved his newly obtained staff in the direction of the oncoming threat. To his surprise, a glowing red bolt of energy blasted out of his weapon before hitting the enraged giantess head on.

The effect was instantaneous as the over-sized Blanc immediately disappeared from view as a massive puff of red smoke obscured her entire form. Before the two adventurers could comprehend what had just happened, a torrential mass of cheese wheels erupted out of spot where the giant CPU had been formerly standing.

As the magical red cloud completely faded away and the sudden flood of cheese that had erupted upwards began to rain back down around them, Big Nep turned to Sync with a stunned look.

"Did you just... turn her into cheese?" she asked, ignoring the large wheel of cheddar that plonked her on the head.

Sync looked back and forth between the cheese wheels dropping down all around them and his staff with a shocked look of his own before eventually giving a hesitant nod.

"I think I just did," he confirmed in a daze. He suddenly gave a fearful shudder as the full impact of what he had just done (as well as a particularly large chunk of mozzarella) hit him. "Oh crap, I just turned Blanc into cheese. Ram and Rom are going to kill me if they ever find out about this. I don't think they'd be too thrilled about me turning their older sister into cheese, even if it was an alternate dimension version of her."

"Don't worry," Big Nep assured. "My lips are sealed. It's a secret to everybody."

Sync gave her a grateful look before inspecting his cheese staff with a new sense of wonder.

"I have to say though, this thing is pretty amazing. A staff that can turn anything into a mass of cheese in one hit. Something tells me this is a hax-tier weapon even in this crazy world."

Before Big Nep could reply, the farmer's goat that they had forgotten about until now stepped up in front of them and began to nibble on a large wheel of Gouda on the ground.

"Oh right," Big Nep said, "I guess we should go return this goat back to its owner."

"Actually, shouldn't we go pick up Uzume first?" Sync asked as the downpour of cheese finally subsided. "I doubt we can turn in our quest without our party leader around. Plus, it's rather faint but I'm sensing that she's finally returning back down from orbit. Based on her current trajectory, she'll probably be landing several hundred miles to the north-west of us."

"Can you teleport her over to us?"

Sync reached out his power for a bit before shaking his head. "She's way beyond my warp radius. And it's kinda hard for me to lock onto her exact location due to this world's spatial interference. It'd probably be easier for us to just go to her instead. We'll need to manually cross a bit of the distance before I can teleport us over to her general area though."

Big Nep did not seem daunted in the slightest at the thought of having to hike some more as she gave cheerful nod.

"Alright, let's get going then! We need to get to Uzume before she gets herself into anymore trouble!"

Sync gave an amused smile. "You know, if this keeps up, she'll end up replacing Noire as the unluckiest person in existence."

Sharing a laugh at this, Sync and Big Nep made their way to pick up their wayward party leader with their temporary goat companion following along.

* * *

"Oh, there you guys are! I was starting to worry you wouldn't be able to track me all the way out here."

It was late into the afternoon by the time the group managed to reunite once more. As it was, Uzume had been waiting for them at a small town in the middle of an expansive swamp. Apparently, she had crash-landed near the place several hours prior and had decided to ask about with the locals while waiting for the rest of her team to find her. Judging from her looks, she had been having a decent enough time despite her brief journey into space.

"Um... Uzume?" Big Nep asked, looking behind her friend with a worried look. "Who's that big burly man standing behind you with an ax?"

"Oh him?" the red-haired CPU answered nonchalantly. "He's just a villager that I picked up as a temporary quest follower. His wife was killed by some vampires and I told him I'd help him hunt them down when I got the time." She waved this aside with her hand as if it were a minor detail. "But that's not what's important right now! I found a lead on our doomsday dragon right before all of you got here!"

"What did you find out?" Sync asked, ignoring the bizarre staring contest that Uzume's new follower and their goat were having.

Uzume answered with a wide smile. "I met this weird traveler in a green cat-themed outfit who told me that she saw a large black shape flying to the west of here last night."

"That seems a bit vague," Big Nep said. "How do we know she didn't just see a flying train?"

"Well it wasn't too long ago so we can probably head over in that direction and check for ourselves if we hurry," Uzume replied enthusiastically.

"I do sense something like a large city in that direction," Sync supplied. "We can stop there for more information and potentially book a room at the inn for the night if nothing shows up."

"Sounds good to me!" Straightening out her helmet and cloak, Uzume pointed forward towards the road leading out of town. "Onward my faithful companions! The dark dragon awaits!"

With their new uncompleted side-quest follower in tow, the heroes continued forward to their next destination.

* * *

"Why do these things keep happening to me?!" Uzume screamed while running from the city guards.

"Well, you did steal that wooden bowl at the inn," Sync answered, a faint smile visible on his face despite their predicament.

"I didn't steal it! I just accidentally picked it up while trying to talk to the innkeeper!"

"Um, guys?" Big Nep interrupted. "I think our other two followers are trying to fight the guards chasing us."

Stopping to turn around, the three heroes found their goat and ax-wielding villager attempting to fight off the massive group of heavily armed guards by themselves.

"No! Bad goat! Bad villager! Get back here before you get us into even more trouble!"

The two NPC followers completely ignored Uzume's frantic yells as they charged into the fight with reckless abandon. Luckily, the two of them were apparently marked as essential as they were forced into an invulnerable recovery state once the guards finished wiping the floor with them in about three seconds flat. Unfortunately, this shifted the guards' focus back onto the main group as they stormed forward with their weapons raised.

"Yeah, we should probably run," Sync advised. "I'm sure our followers will automatically teleport back to us once we enter a new area. That's usually how these types of follower systems work."

Uzume and Big Nep did not need any further prompting as they hightailed it out of there.

* * *

 _Two days later..._

"You know, I'm seriously starting to wonder if we're even following the right track here."

"What makes you say that, Sync?" Big Nep asked.

Sync gave a small shrug as he and his tutor wandered the marketplace of the mountainous, stone-built city they were in.

"It's just, all the travelers we've gotten information from said they saw a 'great flying monstrosity' or something along those lines. How do we know we're not just chasing after a giant train engine instead of our dragon?"

Before Big Nep could respond, Uzume ran over to them with a large smile on her face.

"Hey! Syncsy! Big Nepsy! I just found out from Gearsy that an unidentified flying object was spotted on her radar two days ago! She said that it was flying towards the mountains in the north-east the last she saw it!"

"Wait, are you talking about our Nepgear or this dimension's Nepgear?" Sync asked.

"This dimension's of course," Uzume answered. "She's apparently a court wizard in this world who's obsessed with studying the ancient robots that are buried underneath the city."

Sync gave an amused snort to this. "Of course she is."

"Hey Uzume," Big Nep cut in. "Is it just me or did we gain a few more followers?"

The CPU gave a sheepish laugh as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Well... I might have taken on a _few_ more side-quests along the way. Everyone sounded like they really needed my help and I couldn't just ignore them."

"You know," Sync reminded wryly, "we still haven't finished any of the thirty or so side-quests we've picked up till now."

Uzume gave an embarrassed cough to this. "I'll get to them... eventually. I just think the doomsday dragon that can eat everyone's souls is the most important concern right now."

"I'm pretty sure we'll be heading back home once we finish the main quest Uzume," Big Nep remarked. "It's a pretty common plot element for the heroes to be magically sent back to their home world once their journey's over."

Uzume did not have much to say to that as she instead pretended to be busy adjusting her helmet.

"Eh, it's fine," Sync shrugged off with a smile. "I'm sure all of our unfinished side-quests will just reset once we leave. The adventurers of this world can deal with them once that happens. Anyways, why don't you introduce us to your two new followers?"

Uzume was more than happy to put an end to their current conversation about her horrible side-quest management as she eagerly answered Sync's question.

"I kinda forgot to get their names but the guy in the priest robes said he needed our help hunting down a cannibal cult. As for the person next to him, he's a demon hunter who wanted a hand investigating that house just around the corner."

"Wait. If the quest objective's right there, why didn't you just complete it already?" Big Nep asked.

Uzume gave another cough as she tried to avoid looking at her friend. "Well, um... I think it's a really high level quest and I was hoping that-"

"The place is haunted, isn't it?" Sync guessed with a knowing grin.

The sudden embarrassed look on Uzume's face was more than enough of an answer on its own.

"Well, I guess we should deal with this now since we're in the area anyways." Saying that, Big Nep turned to give their leader an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry though Uzume. I'll hold your hand if it gets too scary in there."

"I'm not scared!" Uzume refuted rather predictably. "It'll take more than a silly little haunted house to scare me! Heck, I'll even lead the way through it right now! Everyone, follow me!"

Sync could not help but give a chuckle as he stepped in line behind the flustered CPU.

"Oh, I can already tell this is going to be a lot of fun."

* * *

"I take it back! This isn't fun! This isn't fun at all!"

Sync yelled this out as he ducked under a flying meat cleaver that tried to take his head off.

Absolute chaos reigned all around the living room the heroes were in as it became clear that whatever was haunting the place did not take too kindly to strangers. Moments after the group had entered, the main door had magically sealed itself shut before every loose object in the well-furnished house was levitated into the air and thrown against them. Mass panic quickly erupted as the adventurers found themselves mercilessly buffeted by everything from cabbages to entire bookshelves. Things only became worse when all the lights in the room begun flickering on and off ominously while the ground shifted violently underneath their feet as if they were stuck in a massive localized earthquake.

"Waaaaaa! Uzume wants to go back home to Umio!"

Not surprisingly, the CPU had reverted to her Orange Heart personality quite some time ago as she clung to Big Nep like a terrified koala to a tree. The older Neptune, for her part, seemed less concerned about the haunted house trying to kill them all and more concerned about the lack of air she was getting due to Uzume's excessively tight embrace.

"Uzume... can't... breath..."

Meanwhile, the NPC followers they had gathered were going completely haywire. It was clear they viewed the supernatural event as a combat situation but the lack of an obvious target for them to attack had made their poor AIs glitch out. As a result, they had all begun to run around and bump into the walls like a bunch of headless chickens as they tried and failed to locate their enemy. The only exception had been the demon hunter who had apparently been scripted to go mad with fear in this situation and had tried to attack Uzume and Big Nep. Suffice to say, the only thing that remained of him now was a large pile of cheese wheels on the ground.

As the various furniture, tools, food items, and other household objects began to whirl about with increased speed, a spine-chilling sadistic laugh suddenly echoed out throughout the room.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA! KNEEL FOR ME YOU PIGS! KNEEL BEFORE THE LADY OF DOMINATION!"

Uzume's eyes widened in horrified recognition as she let out a scream so high-pitched that it shattered every single glass object in the room.

"KYAAAAAAAAAA! IT'S LADY IRIS HEART!" Yelling this, the CPU tightened her grip around Big Nep causing the older girl's face to become even more purple than her hair. With a look that was on the verge of tears, Uzume turned around desperately to Sync. "GET US OUT OF HERE BEFORE WE GET PUNISHED!"

Having been busy charging up as much energy as he could to break through the magical barrier surrounding the house for the past several minutes, Sync was only more than happy to oblige.

* * *

"Well, on the bright side, we managed to make it out of that haunted house alive. On the downside, I probably could have chosen us a better place to appear in."

Neither of Sync's teammates had the luxury of answering him as they were too busy running across the mountaintop as a gigantic flying train rained fiery death upon them.

* * *

"I think it's safe to say that the unidentified flying object this world's Nepgear told us about was that flying train. Judging from my senses, I'm pretty sure my emergency teleport brought us to the north-east mountain that she mentioned."

"Forget that," Uzume breathed out from next to Sync. "I'm just glad we finally managed to take down that thing."

Big Nep gave a tired laugh while sprawled out on the ground. "It at least played a pretty catchy theme song while chasing us. Still, it's a good thing we had those NPC followers around. I don't think my teddy bear would have gotten the chance to hit the train with his cheese staff if they hadn't pulled it's aggro from us."

"Cheese Stick," Sync corrected, twirling about his over-powered weapon proudly. "That's what I'm deciding to call it from now on. Speaking of which, do either of you want to try out some of the cheese the train turned into? I managed to grab a few wheels before they fell down the mountainside."

"Ooh!" Big Nep eagerly said as she shot up. "I wanna try some train cheese!"

Uzume, meanwhile, simply glanced over at their extremely singed-looking goat, villager, and priest. Funnily enough, the motley group was standing calmly near them as if they had not just been in a life-or-death battle with a giant fire-breathing train engine mere moments ago.

"Man, why can't these guys just go and save the world for us?" the CPU grumbled. "They're practically immortal and can obviously hold their own in a fight too."

"They're only NPCs, Uzume," Sync reminded, taking out a large wheel of white cheese and cutting it with his Share Blade. After slicing it into a bunch of uneven yet serviceable bite-sized chunks, he picked up a tiny piece and sampled it to make sure it actually was edible.

"Hm. Not bad," he eventually rated with shrug. "Apparently this train got turned into Provolone."

After handing over a piece to Big Nep, Sync turned back to face Uzume.

"Anyways, the NPCs in this world seem to start behaving like badly-programmed robots once they're brought along for a quest. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're not aware of anything going on around them if it doesn't directly pertain to their quest."

"We must avenge my wife!" the ax-wielding villager shouted out as if to highlight this.

"The cannibal cult hides in the mountains!" the priest added. "Quickly, we must head there!"

 _'Meh-eh-eh-eh'_ the goat bleated, looking just as derpy as ever.

Uzume gave a loud groan as she conceded the point.

"Ugh. I just wish we can find our dragon and get out of this crazy place already," she said tiredly.

"Chin up Uzume," Big Nep encouraged. "I'm sure we'll be done with our quest and be back home in no time. In the meantime, why don't you try out some of this cheese? It's actually quite good."

Uzume let out a large sigh before slowly getting up to grab a piece.

* * *

"Uzume. Don't do it."

"I'm telling you, that mammoth's taunting me!"

Another two days had passed and the group found themselves traversing across the wide open plains once more. During this time, their number of followers had grown to include a young priestess girl, her coal-miner dad, the ghost of a dead adventurer, a horrifying bird-hag witch, an archaeologist looking for an ancient scroll, a stray dog, and a horse that Uzume had bought (which she had given up trying to ride after being thrown off a dozen times).

At the moment, the group was passing by a pair of large woolly mammoths. Oddly enough, the mammoths were wearing a large blue and pink muffin hat respectively very much like another pair of twins. Fittingly, the one wearing the blue hat was quietly minding its own business on top of a nearby hill while the one in the pink hat had approached alongside the group and had been busy making odd noises at them. Most of the group had paid little attention to this but Uzume saw the action as a challenge and had been trying to pick a fight with it for the past several minutes.

"It's just a mammoth Uzume," Big Nep said, trying to calm down her agitated friend once again. "I bet it's just trying to be friends with you."

"No it's not! Look, it's making faces at me right now!"

Sync and Big Nep looked over at the pink-hatted mammoth only to find it giving them an innocent wave with its snout.

"You're just imagining things," Sync said, giving the mammoth a friendly wave in return (as well as a subtle mischievous grin that Uzume failed to catch).

The red-haired CPU gave a rather childish pout to this as she put her hands on her hips.

"I'm not imagining things! That mammoth is totally making fun of me!"

"Let it go Uzume," Big Nep said. "Besides, I doubt you'd be able to take it on in a fight anyways."

"What are you talking about? I could totally- Look! It's doing it again!"

Unfortunately for the mammoth, Sync and Big Nep turned around much faster than it had expected and was caught red-handed as it pulled at its eye with its snout while sticking out its tongue at the CPU.

"Ha! Caught in the act!" Uzume crowed triumphantly. "Now what do you have to say for yourself?"

Rather than looking embarrassed or apologetic, the trouble-making mammoth simply lowered its snout and blew out something that sounded like a raspberry.

"Oh, that's it! I'm gonna teach you some manners!"

Before either of her teammates could stop her, Uzume rushed forward to try and smack the large animal. To everyone's surprise, the mammoth did not try to fight back as it instead began running towards the hill that it's blue-hatted counterpart was grazing on. Even more strangely, it began making a loud, distressed noise that could be heard all throughout the plain.

"You big scaredy-cat!" Uzume taunted as she chased after it. "Come back here so I can beat some sense into- why is the ground shaking?"

To Uzume's horror, a giant Blanc suddenly crested over the hill with her hammer in hand. Like a child running to its parent, the pink-hatted mammoth went over to the over-sized Lowee CPU before tearfully pointing towards the frozen red-haired adventurer with its snout. Giant Blanc's eye immediately took on its signature red glow as she glared down menacingly at the poor fool that had tried to harm her mammoth. With a roar that shook the entire plain, the giant CPU charged forward with her gargantuan hammer raised above her.

"Not again!"

That was all Uzume had time to say before the hammer came down and she was sent hurtling skyward once more.

"Well, that's another one for the Blanc Space Program," Sync muttered as he and Big Nep watched their leader disappear into the clouds with a twinkle.

Just like last time though, Giant Blanc's fury was quickly redirected towards the remaining adventurers. However, before the large CPU could charge forward, the pink-hatted mammoth quickly moved to stop her. Making a bunch of trumpeting sounds, the mammoth seemed to convince her caretaker that the remaining adventurers were not a threat. Thankfully, this managed to calm the giant goddess as she lowered her hammer with a huff. Sending the adventurers (especially Sync) one final suspicious glare, Giant Blanc turned around and headed over to check up on her other mammoth.

"Whew. Glad we avoided that fight," Sync said, letting go of the NPC followers that he had been holding back with his telekinetic powers. As it was, all of them had tried to initiate combat as soon as Uzume had been attacked but had thankfully ceased hostilities as soon as Blanc had lowered her weapon.

After double-checking to make sure none of the NPCs were still in a combat state, Sync approached the pink-hatted mammoth with a grin.

"Thanks for stopping Blanc. It would've been bad if things got any more out of hand over a harmless bit of Uzume baiting."

The mammoth seemed to somehow understand what he was saying as it let out something that sounded like a mischievous laugh. Giving it's partner-in-crime a mock salute with its snout, the trouble-making Ram-moth parted ways with them and headed off towards its family.

"Heh. I guess the two of you get along no matter what dimension you're in," Big Nep commented. A teasing grin appeared on her face as she nudged her student with her elbow. "It's almost like the two of you are soulmates or something."

Rather than getting flustered, Sync waved this off with a small chuckle of his own. "Don't let our dimension's Blanc hear you saying something like that. She'd probably smack you to the far side of Zero Dimension before launching Lowee's entire Blue Shell arsenal at me."

Big Nep's gave a rather nervous laugh as she realized this was very much in the realm of possibility. Deciding to veer away from the dangerous subject, she looked back up into the sky.

"Guess it's back to finding Uzume then. If things go on in their usual pattern, she'll probably land down near the next important plot point. Hopefully she doesn't accidentally unleash a necromancer queen on an entire city or something before we get to her."

Sync gave an amused snort. "Knowing her, she'd probably end up recruiting the necromancer queen as another follower."

The two of them looked back at their small army of NPCs before shaking their heads with a half-exasperated, half-amused look. With all that said and done, Sync reached out with his spatial senses to pinpoint the space-faring CPU's location before leading the way forward.

* * *

 _Three days later..._

"Uzume... I think you might have a bit of a hoarding problem."

"What are you talking Big Nepsy? I'm not hoarding anything."

Big Nep did not bother to say anything as she instead just glanced over at the crowd of new followers that the CPU had ended up gathering during their time apart. Though it was hard to judge just how many there really were due to them constantly moving about and bumping into each other from their poor AI, it was clear there were at least a minimum of twenty new followers within their midst.

Following her friend's gaze and realizing what she was talking about, Uzume gave a rather sheepish laugh as she rubbed the back of her head. Luckily for her, Sync chose this moment to come back from his scouting trip and joined back up with them on the snowy mountaintop they were all on.

"Alright, I took care of the musical trolls blocking the road further down. We shouldn't have any problem getting down the mountain now. Also, we're going to be having a lot of smoked Gouda for dinner tonight."

Before either of his teammates could respond, one of the new NPC followers wearing a hood suddenly walked up and bumped into him.

"Yes? What did you need?" the follower asked while inches away from Sync's own face.

"Er... I think I need a little bit of personal space, lady," he said, slowly backing away from the overly-attached follower.

"Oh, you'll get used to that," Uzume casually explained. "Her idle interactions get a bit annoying but she's really handy in a fight."

While Sync continued to put as much space between himself and the clingy follower, Big Nep peered down curiously at the hooded NPC's face.

"Hey, wait," she said in recognition. "Isn't this that Segami girl from that spin-off game with Iffy? What's she doing here? And why does she have fangs and glowing red eyes?"

Uzume let out a rather uncomfortable laugh to this. "Well, she's apparently some kinda vampire princess in this world. I found her while exploring a cave and I kinda sorta promised her that I'd take her back to her friends that live on an island to the north."

"But then you saw just how strong she was and decided to purposefully not finish the quest to keep her around indefinitely," Sync finished for her with a knowing smirk. "I'm guessing the same goes for all the new followers you gained while we were away as well?"

"N...Not all of them," Uzume replied, refusing to meet her teammates' eyes while pushing her index fingers together. "Some of their quest locations were just too far away for me to deal with. Plus, I was getting kinda lonely without you two around." The last part came out in a barely audible mumble but Big Nep and Sync seemed to hear it anyways, as evident by their widening smiles.

"Aw, Uzume," Big Nep said, walking over to give her friend a hug. "Now you're making me feel bad about taking that detour to fix up a self-refilling pudding cup before coming to find you."

"Wait, what?"

Sync quickly changed the subject as he joined in on the group hug.

"Well, I'm glad we're back together. Going on a grand journey just isn't the same without our fearless leader around."

Uzume could not help but smile at that.

"Heh. Thanks Syncsy. And you too Big Nepsy. You two are the best."

Unfortunately, their touching reunion did not last for very long.

"Yes? What did you need?"

"For Umio's sake, Segami! Just stand back there and stop bumping into me!"

* * *

The next few days of their 'epic' dragon hunt ended up being just as productive as ever. Which was to say, not a whole lot.

"You know, you'd think this many NPCs could take down a single train on their own but I guess I overestimated the capability of their combat AI."

"Eh, they're not doing _too_ bad," Uzume replied to Sync, snacking on some of the Mozzarella that he had laid out for them.

"Go for its face!" Big Nep cheered from the sidelines. "Shoot it in its eyes!"

None of the NPCs bothered to follow her instruction as they all just fired and swung their various weapons in the general direction of the giant flying train. Not surprisingly, most of these attacks ended up missing and hit their fellow teammates instead, which, in turn, caused them to aggro onto each other. By now, the three main heroes had given up on trying to stop these fights (trying to get all their followers to exit their combat state was too much of a hassle; plus none of them could die anyways) so the trio simply watched on as a good chunk of their followers were busy waging war on their comrades while the train continued to wreak havoc from above.

As the massive battle stretched on with no end in sight, Big Nep eventually got tired of standing around and walked over to join her sitting teammates.

"Is it just me or have we been running into a lot more of these trains lately?" Big Nep said, plopping down next to Sync as she grabbed a piece of the cheese as well.

The group paused to give a collective wince as a massive explosion fired off by the bird-hag sent one of their priests crashing through a boulder before Sync answered the question.

"No, there's definitely been an increase in their encounter rate. I'm pretty sure my inventory is almost full with all the different types of cheese I've turned them into lately."

"You're a bit of a cheese nut, aren't you?" Uzume remarked teasingly.

Sync waved his Cheese Stick at her jokingly. "I prefer the term 'cheese connoisseur' thank you very much. Besides, if sis can be obsessed with her fancy teas, then I'd say I'm allowed to enjoy my cheese as well."

"Okay, okay! Just stop waving that thing in front of my face. I don't want to end up like that thief who tried to mug us a few hours back."

Sync lowered his staff with a laugh as he helped himself to the last remaining pieces of Mozzarella. In the meantime, Big Nep watched on as their army of followers continued to fail at bringing down the flying train engine.

"Hmm... I wonder if we accidentally set off some kind of event flag that caused more of these trains to appear," she remarked.

"I'm fairly certain that we didn't pick up any kind of quest involving these trains," Sync said after finishing his snack. "And to be honest, even if we had, I doubt we would have finished it considering the general lack of side-quest management that's been going on."

Uzume gave an embarrassed laugh to this while Big Nep continued to look thoughtful.

"Maybe there's another adventurer out there that's caused this?" she eventually guessed.

"If there is, they must be someone pretty important to trigger such a major event flag like this," Sync said, pulling out some of the foul-smelling Limburger cheese he had saved. Ignoring the disgusted look Uzume was giving him, he continued on speaking. "I just hope that taking all these NPCs with us isn't interfering with whatever quest they have."

"I'd be more worried about all the things you've turned into cheese so far," Big Nep said with a laugh. "You did miss quite a few of your shots along the way and they might have hit some plot essential character or object by accident."

Sync gave an amused snort to this.

"Come on, my aim wasn't that bad. And even if it did hit something, what are the chances it hit anything important?"

* * *

The mysterious adventurer from before gave a sigh as she stood in front of the locked gates of the ASIC Embassy. Normally, there should have been some kind of guard at the entrance that she could initiate dialogue with to advance her current infiltration quest but the only thing in front of the gate at the moment was a large pile of yellow cheese.

Adjusting her hooded cloak, the adventurer sadly contemplated her recent string of bad luck. Practically every single one of her quests had been bugged due to a large number of missing NPCs or enemies. She did note that there was usually a large amount of cheese left over in these bugged areas but she was unsure of what to make of it.

Luckily though, she had some handy 'tools' that allowed her to bypass these glitchy situations. Seeing that she would not be able to proceed with her current quest without somehow getting past the locked gate, she decided to utilize one of them.

Pulling out a plain wooden bucket from her inventory, she began surveying the stone wall surrounding the embassy before picking out a suitable spot. Then, with the bucket held out in front of her, she ran forward towards the wall.

Bizarrely enough, the bucket somehow allowed her to phase past the seemingly solid obstacle as she glitched her way into the previously sealed off area.

Giving a brief smile at successfully pulling off the exploit, the adventurer put away her handy bucket as she made her way over to the main door. Crouching down to maximize her sneaking capabilities, she quietly slipped her way into the ASIC headquarters to retrieve her needed information.

* * *

"Are you kidding me?! We came all the way out here for another train?!"

Hearing the flying locomotive's theme song beginning to play for the umpteenth time, Uzume finally snapped as she let out a massive frustrated scream.

"That's it! I'm done! I've had it with these wild goose chases!"

Not surprisingly, things had been going rather... poorly for the three heroes. The trio had just passed the two week benchmark for their quest and there had still yet to be a single solid clue as to their dragon's whereabouts. Patience was starting to run thin for everyone as every rumor and supposed sighting led them time and time again to either a flying train or some other equally ridiculous flying monster. Even Big Nep, who had remained optimistic for nearly their entire journey, could not help but give a tired sigh as she once again watched their army of NPC followers surge forward to engage the flying train engine.

"Uzume has a point," she let out. "It feels like we've been going around in circles with our search. In fact, I'm pretty sure we've been to this forest area at least twice already."

Next to her, Sync did not bother to say anything as he simply nommed on a piece of Feta cheese. However, the lack of a smile on his face as well as his worn out expression made it pretty clear that even he was starting to grow tired of the whole ordeal as well.

After loudly venting all her frustrations for nearly ten whole minutes, Uzume finally tromped back over to her teammates looking completely drained.

"I'm guessing you can't sense the dragon hiding someplace around here either?" she asked Sync.

The only response she got was a rather robotic shake of his head.

Uzume flopped down onto the leaf-covered ground with a thump as she stared up into the ironically clear and beautiful blue sky with a dead expression.

"Why are we still bothering to look in this crazy place?" she groaned. "I bet that dragon's already left this stupid dimension by now."

"That can't be it," Big Nep tried to reassure, although she sounded rather uncertain herself. "The final boss isn't allowed to run away without letting the hero know about it. It has to be waiting for you somewhere in this dimension so that the two of you can finish your battle."

Neither Uzume nor Sync bothered to respond to this as silence fell between the three of them. After several minutes passed with only the sounds of their followers waging war on each other and the flying train echoing about them, Sync finally spoke up.

"Well, I guess we've got no choice then," he said, brushing off the cheese crumbs from his hands. "I didn't want to do this since it felt like cheating but we're all probably going to end up going insane if we don't end this journey soon."

Saying that, he looked over towards his mentor.

"Ms. Neptune, can I borrow the Nep-Note for a second?"

"Um... sure," Big Nep replied. With a confused look, she pulled out her purple notebook from her pocket and handed it over to him. "What are you planning to do with it?"

Sync did not bother to say anything as he instead turned his attention onto the magical book.

"Hey, Croire," he called out. "I want you to take us directly to the doomsday dragon."

Not surprisingly, he received no answer as the tome-fairy either did not hear him or was simply ignoring him. Deciding that the latter was more likely, Sync resorted to more drastic measures as he began to vigorously shake the book up and down.

"I know you can hear me Croire," he called out. "Take us to the doomsday dragon or I'm getting Uzume to start shaking this book instead."

This finally got a response from the ill-tempered fairy as she spoke up in a panic.

" _Stop... shaking... me... you... stupid... brat!"_ Croire yelled, apparently being bounced off the walls of her notebook prison. _"I... don't... know... where... the... dragon... is!"_

Sync finally relented as he looked down at the book with a raised eyebrow.

"What happened to the whole 'I'm an all-knowing tome' bit?"

Croire spent a few minutes recovering from the miniature earthquake before letting out a derisive scoff at him.

" _Do you really expect me to process every single insignificant detail that goes on around me? Yeah I can probably look up where your damn dragon is but it'll take me about four weeks to dig it up from my archives."_

"Four weeks?!" Uzume yelled as she got back up. "I'm not gonna spend another four weeks in this madhouse!"

A large volley of gigantic cabbages exploded behind her as if to highlight her words.

Sync, meanwhile, had a thoughtful look on his face.

"Then do you know where the final dungeon of this world is?" he asked Croire. "You told us you were trapped in this dimension for a long time so you probably came across it before. If what Ms. Neptune said is true, then it's very likely that we'll find our dragon waiting for us in that location."

Croire answered him with a snide laugh.

" _I might know where it is, yeah. But what makes you think I'll help you idiots out?"_

Big Nep stepped in to stop Sync when he raised his hand to start shaking the Nep-Note again.

"Stop doing that," she chided disapprovingly. "Some of the other specimens I collected in there are pretty sensitive. They might end up exploding if you keep shaking it like that."

" _Ha!"_ Croire said triumphantly. _"Looks like you won't be shaking anything out of me anymore! What are you going to do now, shota boy?"_

All the stress that had been building up for Sync during the past two weeks finally seemed to come to a head as a dangerous glint flashed across his eyes. With a rather ominous chuckle, he moved away from his teammates and opened up the notebook to the page where Croire was being kept.

" _H...Hey,"_ the fairy said, her previous bravado quickly fading away. _"What do you think you're doing?"_

"Oh, I just thought you might be a bit hungry," Sync answered, his calm voice belying the dark aura surrounding him. "Here, have some cheese."

Saying that, he pulled out a gigantic block of foul-smelling Limburger cheese from his inventory before shoving it into the page that Croire was trapped in.

" _BWAH-!"_

Judging from the sound, the large hunk of smelly cheese had ended up squashing the fairy after being sucked into the page.

" _You damn brat!"_ Croire shouted indignantly. _"I'm going to freaking kill you!"_

"What's that?" Sync asked, his smile widening wickedly. "You're still hungry? Here, I'll let you have some more."

Much to Croire's horror, the ticked off boy brought out an enormous collection of fetid-smelling cheeses before dropping them one by one into her prison. The cheesy torture session continued on for several more minutes before the smell and weight of all the cheese smothering her caused Croire to finally break.

" _S...Stop!"_ the fairy cried out in a muffled and chocked voice. _"I'll do it! I'll take you idiots to the final dungeon so stop with the stinking cheese!"_

Much to Croire's relief, Sync put away the moldy blue cheese he was currently holding with a triumphant laugh. Meanwhile, Big Nep and Uzume watched on from the sidelines with uneasy looks.

"So this is what my teddy bear is like when he gets mad," Big Nep noted with a rather nervous laugh. "It's a good thing I never made him lose his temper with me."

"No kidding," Uzume said with a shudder. "He might not be trying stab people with a spear but he's got that same scary vibe that Vertsy got when I accidentally joked about her getting fat."

As the two of them watched Sync continue to laugh maniacally, they could not help but wonder if repressed insanity was just a standard aspect of the Leanbox family.

* * *

" _Ugh... we're here. Now get these shit-smelling cheeses out of my page before I get sick."_

Sync did not immediately reply as he, Uzume, Big Nep, and their private army of followers (which had thankfully disengaged from their hostilities after being dragged away from the flying train) looked about the new area they had been teleported to. At the moment, the group was standing at the edge of an enormous ancient temple located far up in an isolated mountaintop. Peering down into the distance, the three heroes could vaguely pick out the forest they had just been in far off to the west of their current position.

"You sure this is the right place?" Sync asked skeptically, quickly scanning their surrounding area with his power. "I'm sensing a lot of zombies and a couple of flying trains roaming about but not our dragon."

" _The stupid lizard's probably hiding out in this world's Celestia,"_ Croire quickly said, obviously fearful that the boy would start chucking more cheese at her. _"I couldn't teleport you idiots there directly so I brought you to the portal leading to it. I think I remember it being somewhere at the top of these ruins so have fun getting to it."_

Sync quickly confirmed this by reaching out with his power and picking up a faint yet powerful spatial anomaly at the very end of the massive exterior dungeon. Unfortunately, there was a large amount of spatial interference radiating out from the portal that prevented him from simply warping himself and his group directly over to it.

"Guess we're in for a bit of a walk then." Saying that, he snapped shut the Nep-Note without removing any of the cheese he had put into Croire's page. Ignoring the furious, muffled yells coming from the fairy, he pulled out a large bottle of air-freshener before spritzing an ample amount of it around both himself and the notebook.

"Here," he said to Big Nep, handing her both the notebook and the bottle of air-freshener. "You might need to continue spraying this for few days while Croire finishes eating all the delicious cheese I supplied for her."

Big Nep quickly took both items and put them into her pocket with an uneasy laugh. "I guess I won't have to worry about feeding Crostie for a while."

Sync gave a dark smile to this which caused Uzume to give another fearful shudder. Deciding to move away from the topic of cheese-related torture, she looked on over to the massive ruin that lay in front of them.

"So this is like the second-to-last dungeon, huh? It certainly looks impressive."

Thankfully, Sync's temper seemed to have run its course as he answered her in a decidedly more cheerful manner.

"The dungeon layout is pretty linear but the amount of enemies might make this a bit troublesome," he explained. "I'm pretty sure our followers can distract most of the basic mobs but we'll need to clear the way of any high-level enemies that block the main pathways ourselves."

"Heh heh. I guess it's time to Nep up some baddies then," Big Nep said eagerly, drawing out her twin swords with a flourish.

Uzume mirrored her friend's enthusiasm as she stepped up while cracking her knuckles.

"One more dungeon till the final boss, huh? Well, I'm definitely up for this, even if we are going up against a bunch of gross mummified zombies."

"And flying trains," Sync reminded with a laugh. "Also, I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of giant spiders in those side-towers that we'll need to go through."

Uzume's determined look quickly fell away as she backtracked away from her position at the head of the group.

"Um... why don't the two of you take the lead for this one?" she told her teammates as she hid behind them. "I wouldn't want to hog all the glory after everything we've been through together."

Suppressing a laugh at Uzume's antics, Big Nep and Sync led the way forward with their literal army of NPC followers marching behind them.

* * *

"That definitely took a lot longer than expected but we're finally here," Big Nep said cheerfully.

"Ugh. Stupid zombies," Uzume grumbled. "Why did they keep shouting only at me the whole time? I had to climb up that stupid ruin at least eight times cause they kept blasting me off to the bottom level."

"They probably wanted revenge on you for that group of zombies you shouted off the entire mountainside at the beginning," Sync said with a smile.

"By the way, do you think our followers will be okay back there?" Big Nep asked, looking back at the large, glowing portal they had just come through. Apparently, their NPC followers were not allowed to follow them into this area as none of them had automatically teleported over to them as usual.

"All of them are immortal," Uzume reminded while straightening out her helmet and cloak. "Besides, I saw Segami easily taking care of five of those zombies by herself. I'm sure the rest of them can also handle themselves."

Big Nep easily accepted this with a nod as she and her teammates turned to look out at their final destination.

Unlike all the other variations of Celestia in their various spin-off universes, this one was not a verdant island paradise floating atop the bright blue sky. Instead, this divine realm had the appearance of an enormous mountain valley that very much reflected the land below. Tall evergreen trees and majestic statues of presumable ancient heroes dotted the landscape while a large clear river ran through the middle of its expanse. Above them, a sea of stars and a multi-colored aurora illuminated the peaceful yet somber twilight that shrouded the entire place. Far away, a chorus of distant chanting seemed to herald the newcomers as they stopped to take in the awe-inspiring sight.

"This dimension might be completely crazy but they sure do have one heck of an afterlife," Uzume breathed out.

Her companions silently nodded their heads in agreement as they took a few more seconds to appreciate the view.

Eventually, the group remembered they still had a quest to finish as they shook themselves out of their reverie and began heading down the stone path laid out in front of them. Unlike the ancient ruins they had just been in, this area seemed completely devoid of any dangers as the group safely made their way into the valley proper without encountering a single enemy. However, a different sort of obstacle soon appeared to obstruct their path.

"What the-? Where did all this mist come from?"

Just as Sync noted, a thick layer of mist blocked the way forward as it seemed to entirely cover the center of the valley. Despite its harmless appearance, the obscuring cloud radiated a strong sense of ancient magic and despair that made him hesitant to go through it.

"Hey, wait," Big Nep said. "Isn't this-?"

"YES! WE FINALLY FOUND IT!"

Sync looked over at Uzume in confusion as the CPU practically jumped up and down in delight.

"Um... mind filling me in on what's going on here?"

Big Nep was the one to answer him as Uzume was too busy celebrating to do so.

"The doomsday dragon covered the town in our world with this mist when it attacked," she explained. "I'm pretty sure it becomes immune to all damage while it's inside the cloud and only the chosen hero can remove it. Anyways, since this mist is here, I'm pretty sure this means our dragon is further inside."

Uzume finished off her celebrations with a little dance before pulling out her megaphone with an wide grin.

"Alright, stand back! It's time for me to show off my chosen one powers!"

After making sure her teammates had backed away - and put on earmuffs for extra safety - Uzume took in a deep breath before letting loose a massive shout. The enhanced sound blast immediately dispersed the supernatural mist around them as the entire valley seemed to shake from the unleashed power. Uzume repeated this process two more times before every last trace of the mist covering the land had vanished completely.

"The way is clear!" the CPU declared triumphantly. "Now onward to our final battle!"

Taking off their protective headgear, Big Nep and Sync followed behind their leader as the three of them eagerly ran up the large hill marked by the stone path.

As the trio reached the summit, however, their eagerness changed into confusion as they came upon an absolutely bizarre sight.

"Is that... the doomsday dragon fighting against a giant train engine?"

No one bothered to confirm Big Nep's statement as they were too busy watching the chaos taking place above them.

On one end, an enormous black dragon with pointed black scales and glowing red eyes was soaring through the air while unleashing a torrent of devastating elemental shouts at its opponent. Facing off against the dragon and easily brushing off its attacks was a flying train engine far larger than any the group had encountered in the wild. With a light-blue paint job and an evil grin on its creepy plastic face, the train was a fearsome menace in its own right as it let loose a piercing whistle against the dragon in retaliation. The once-peaceful sky was immediately changed into a fiery maelstrom as a torrential rain of flaming coal-filled train cars descended upon the dragon as well as the surrounding land below it.

"Hey, wait," Uzume said in recognition. "I know that train! That's the one that showed up while I was about to be executed!"

Before she could say anything else, one of the flaming train cars suddenly came down directly towards her. Luckily, Big Nep was fast enough to drag her back to safety before she ended up being turned into orange paste.

"Thanks," Uzume breathed out as she stared wide-eyed at the large crater the coal car had left behind.

Big Nep just answered with a smile while Sync had his eyes focused on something else in the skies.

"Is it just me or are there a bunch of lights fighting those two?"

His question was soon answered when one of the fast-moving specks of light seemed to notice the newcomers and flew down to meet them.

To their surprise, the shining figure turned out to be none other than Purple Heart as she landed down in front of them. In contrast to her Hyperdimension counterpart, this version of the Planeptune goddess was clearly based around the version from the _4GO_ series as evident by her white outfit, angelic wings, and halo. Despite her current tired appearance, she still radiated an aura of elegance and grace that was rarely found in their dimension's Neptune (which, to be fair, was mostly due to her being too lazy to spend the energy to activate her HDD most of the time).

"Greetings Trainborn," Purple Heart said to a very confused-looking Uzume. "Your timing is impeccable. We have need of your great powers to vanquish the World Eater and this dark interloper."

"Wait, hold on a second," Uzume cut in. "Trainborn? What are you talking about? I'm just here to beat up that giant dragon."

It was Purple Heart's turn to look confused as she looked at the redhead. "Are you not the prophesied hero of legend? Was it not you who dispelled the World Eater's foul mist from this realm?"

"Yeah, I took care of the mist but what's all this other stuff about?" Uzume said. "I mean, I guess there was that weird scroll that apparently said I was a chosen hero or whatever but how do you know about it? And why are you calling the doomsday dragon the World Eater?"

"Actually I think she's referring to the train with that title," Sync said. "It definitely makes more sense for her to call the dragon the interloper since it came from our dimension."

Purple Heart was about to respond to this when Green Heart flew down from the battle above to join them.

"Is there a problem here?" she asked curtly. "Why hasn't the Trainborn brought down the World Eater yet?"

"Oh, hey sis," Sync said, giving a slightly muted yet obviously teasing grin.

"We are not related," Green Heart immediately replied, her response coming out almost automatically despite the fact that she seemed more confused than anything.

Sync did not get a chance to laugh at his little inner-joke as a loud thundering shout echoed from the sky. Looking up, the group saw that the dragon had summoned a rain of flaming meteors to counter the train's coal cars.

"Okay, we obviously don't have a lot of time before the entire world ends so why don't the two of you give us a bit of handy exposition on what's been going on here before we appeared?" Big Nep said, still looking rather upbeat despite her words.

Green Heart looked rather affronted at being spoken to so casually but Purple Heart ignored this and answered the question.

"The dark interloper, this 'doomsday dragon' as you referred to it, appeared within our realm roughly two weeks ago. It attempted to feast on the souls of the dead so we, the four goddesses, came forth to stop it. To our surprise, the beast was immune to all our attacks and could not be slain. With no other recourse, we constructed a barrier around it to contain the foul beast." She paused to swing her sword up and obliterate an oncoming meteor before calmly continuing on. "We managed to safely hold the interloper in place until the World Eater suddenly descended upon our realm two days ago. It immediately covered this realm with its cursed mist which weakened our powers and allowed the doomsday dragon to break free. Since then, the two have been waging war against each other in a battle for supremacy."

"We've been trying to contain their destruction but I fear it is only a matter time before this entire realm is brought to ruin," Green Heart concluded. "Our only hope now is for the legendary Trainborn to put an end to this madness."

The trio remained silent for a bit as they tried to process all of this while avoiding the rain of coal cars and meteors.

"Hey Syncsy," Uzume eventually asked. "Did that scroll of yours say anything about me taking down these trains as well?"

Sync shook his head. "Not that I recall. Of course, I only got a very rough translation of it with the equipment Histoire had so it's possible I overlooked something."

Uzume gave a nod to this as she turned to the two goddesses with a smile.

"Well, I don't know about this whole Trainborn business but I'll help you guys out. It seems like that train uses a lot of the same techniques as the doomsday dragon so I'm sure my chosen hero status will work on it too."

"Um, Uzume?" Big Nep interrupted. "Did you forget that you can't transform in this world? How are you going to even reach the two of them?"

The red-haired CPU simply let out a laugh as she raised her megaphone and struck a pose.

"Heh, I don't need my HDD for this! I'll unleash my true potential as a chosen hero and show everyone a power that goes even further beyond!"

With that said, she began to charge up her energy with a loud yell. To everyone's surprise, the ground around her began to quake as a powerful surge of energy emanated from her. A glowing orange aura soon surrounded her entire form as her ponytails whipped about wildly in the raging energy storm. With a increased yell, the aura around her began to intensify as-

"I hate to ruin the moment but can we please skip the fifteen minute power-up sequence?" Sync yelled, barely dodging a barrage of coal cars and meteors with a short-range warp. "I don't think Celestia's going to be around by the time you finish growing out your hair and removing your eyebrows."

Uzume reluctantly complied with his wishes as she cut her transformation short with a grumble. With just her blazing orange aura surrounding her, she readied herself in a crouching position. Then, for the first time in her journey, Uzume blasted off into the sky of her own volition as she jumped with enough force to leave a sizable crater behind.

"Take this!" she yelled, soaring up directly towards the doomsday dragon as her audience watched with wide eyes. "Dream Smash-"

Uzume's moment of glory was abruptly ended when the dragon swerved in midair to avoid one of the train's attacks and unintentionally whacked her aside with its large tail.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH-!"

Seeing the supposed chosen hero fall screaming back down towards the ground before crashing face-first into a nearby hill caused Purple Heart and Green Heart to forsake their dignified appearances as they both gave a giant facepalm.

"Well... we're doomed," Green Heart muttered from beneath her hand.

Big Nep just gave an embarrassed laugh at Uzume's sad display before quickly running over and pulling her friend out of the ground like an over-grown carrot. In the meantime, Sync pulled out his Cheese Stick and fired it off against the dragon and train. Unfortunately, their plot protection was far too powerful for even the mighty cheese magic to have any effect as neither of the giant monsters bothered to even acknowledge the failed attack as they continued to destroy the landscape with their titanic battle.

"That... that was just a practice run!" Uzume cried out, stumbling back over to the group with the help of Big Nep. "I demand a redo!"

The exasperated goddesses lowered their hands and were just about to express their disappointment when a piercing whistle suddenly echoed out from behind them.

To everyone's surprise, the devastating rain of coal cars and meteors disappeared as the sky magically cleared up. Before anyone could figure out what was going on, another loud whistle sounded out as a visible sound wave flew across the sky and hit both the rampaging dragon and train head on. A glowing blue veil of energy immediately appeared around the two monstrosities as the mysterious attack seemed to sap away at their strength. With a furious roar and whistle, the two monstrosities floundered about in the air until they were eventually forced down onto the ground.

"Whew. Looks like I made it just in time," an oddly familiar voice called out.

Turning around, the group found themselves staring up at a hooded figure standing heroically atop the hill behind them.

"Wait. Is that-?"

Uzume's question was answered when the newcomer looked down at them.

"Now that's a face I wasn't expecting to see."

As everyone stared with wide eyes, the mysterious adventurer pulled back her hood and revealed herself to be none other than... another Uzume. Though she had her hair tied back in a simple ponytail and had a much more calm demeanor about her, it was hard to mistake the completely identical face she had with the CPU. As a light breeze caused her cloak to flutter back, the group saw that this Uzume was wearing an ornate red samurai armor underneath that was very akin to what the Hunters wore in the Hyperdimension. Looking closer, they saw that she carried a beautifully-crafted katana in her left hand while her right hand held what could only be a large orange traffic whistle.

"So," the new Uzume said as she approached her stunned doppelganger. "Are you supposed to be the spirit of one of my dead ancestors who happens to look exactly like me?"

Uzume failed to answer as the doomsday dragon and train engine both located their attacker's location and let loose a ground-shaking roar and whistle. Apparently deciding to put their battle on hold for the time being, the two monsters charged forward to deal with the bigger threat.

Getting over her initial shock, Purple Heart quickly turned to address the new hero.

"Though your powers are apparent, I must confirm. Are you truly the Trainborn that was foretold by the prophecy?"

"I am," the whistle-carrying Uzume confidently answered, holding up her weapons as she focused on the approaching monstrosities. "There were a few... complications along the way but I've chased the World-Eater to this realm to finally vanquish it for good. However, I admit I'm rather confused about the involvement of this dragon."

"Heh heh. That one's actually mine," Uzume answered, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "It ran away to this dimension after I beat the crap out of it back home."

Trainborn Uzume did not get a chance to question this as the dragon and train neared them with another roar and whistle.

"I suppose it doesn't matter," she said instead. "I'll deal with both these threats so I suggest everyone else to fall back to a safe distance in the meantime."

Purple Heart and Green Heart quickly complied with her wishes as they flew up to where the other two goddesses were holding position. Uzume, however, held her ground with a huff.

"Hey, I spent the last two weeks in this crazy world to find this overgrown lizard!" she complained. "There's no way I'm just going to sit back and let someone else take it down, even if that person happens to be me!"

Luckily, Sync was at hand to prevent an argument from occurring.

"What she's trying to say is that you'll need her help to deal with this," he reiterated with a smile. "That dragon and train might share a lot of similarities but I'm fairly certain only the designated chosen heroes can deliver the final blow to it. That's usually how these prophecy things tend to work."

Trainborn Uzume took a second to consider this before acknowledging this with a small smile.

"I still don't fully understand what is going on but I welcome your help," she told her other self. "Let us vanquish our foes together then, friend."

Seeing that she was not going to be disregarded, Uzume returned the smile as she thankfully lost her confrontational attitude.

"Heh. I guess you aren't so bad. Then again, I guess you are me so that's kind of to be expected.

With a shared nod, the two Uzumes readied their weapons and charged forward to meet their enemies head on. Behind them, Sync and Big Nep pulled out a bucket of popcorn as they settled in for the climactic final battle in all its surround-sound glory.

* * *

"Dream Roar!"

The first move went to Uzume as she delivered a flying kick against the doomsday dragon's face. The powerful blow managed to send the enormous dragon skidding back several feet as it let loose a surprised and angry roar. Before it could recover, Uzume used her momentum to jump higher into the air and aimed her megaphone at her opponent. Taking in a deep breath, the CPU unleashed a massive shout through her weapon which created a sound blast strong enough to leave a large crater as it hit its target.

Pressing her advantage, Uzume put away her megaphone and rushed forward as soon as she hit the ground.

"Dream Combo!"

The dragon had no chance to retaliate as a massive flurry of punches battered its form.

"Ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora!"

The relentless barrage continued for several seconds before Uzume paused to pull back her right fist and gathered a large amount of share energy into it. With a wide smirk, she let loose her finishing blow.

"ORA!"

A literal explosion went off as the reinforced fist connected with the dragon. For once, Uzume had the chance to enjoy watching something else go flying into the air with a scream as the dragon was catapulted into the sky before crashing into a nearby mountainside with a resounding crash.

"Hell yeah! That's what you get for making me waste all that time looking for you!"

Meanwhile, her alternate dimension counterpart was still in the middle of her own battle against the blue train engine.

With a series of powerful slashes from her katana, Trainborn Uzume managed to temporarily stun her opponent as she fell back to charge up her sword with a glowing orange energy. However, the train recovered faster than expected as it let loose a torrent of hellish flames against her.

"Watch out!" Uzume yelled out.

Her warning turned out to be unneeded though as Trainborn Uzume quickly raised her traffic whistle and let loose a short tweet. Immediately, her entire body turned ethereal as the flames passed harmlessly through her incorporeal form.

Without any hesitation, Trainborn Uzume began running through the jet of fire while continuing to charge up her katana. The train, unaware of any of this, stopped its fiery blast with a smug look on its plastic face. It's expression soon turned to surprise, however, when it found the ethereal form of its enemy standing directly in front of it. As her body automatically turned solid again, Trainborn Uzume swung her charged weapon forward with a ferocious yell.

"Dream Sever!"

A crescent beam of orange energy blasted out of the sword as it connected with its target. Though the attack failed to cut through the train's reinforced metal exterior, it did manage to send the monster flying with its sheer force. With a shrill whistle, the train flipped through the air multiple times before it finally crash-landed onto the ground in a heap.

"Nice one!" Uzume cheered as she sent her alternate self a thumbs-up.

"Good job with the dragon as well," Trainborn Uzume returned with a smile. Her expression quickly turned serious again as she looked back to her opponents. "We shouldn't celebrate yet though. I'm fairly certain this battle is far from over."

Right on cue, both the dragon and train recovered from the beating they sustained as they both took to skies with a furious roar and whistle respectively.

"Damn. Fighting them in the air is going to be super annoying," Uzume said, remembering her failed aerial assault. She quickly remembered her partner's special attack though as she looked back over to her. "Hey, can you use that magic whistle of yours to force them to land again or was that just a one time thing?"

Her alternate self looked at the two raging beasts with a calculating gaze before answering.

"I can use it again but it'd be difficult to hit them both without the element of surprise. The whistle's blast radius is fairly large but it's also very slow-moving. Unless we can somehow stun them and get them to stay still, I doubt I'd be able to land the shot."

Uzume mulled this over for a few seconds before she suddenly gave a wide grin.

"Heh. Looks like you're in luck," she said confidently. "I have just the skill we need for this situation."

After jumping back to avoid a large fireball sent by the dragon, Uzume began charging up her energy once more. Her alternate self provided cover for them in the meantime by letting loose a pair of freezing whistle blasts against the two flying monsters. Though the dragon and train engine both managed to dodge the attack, it bought the CPU just enough time to dramatically point forward and call forth her special plot-enhanced SP skill.

"Endless Umio Heaven!"

What appeared to be hundreds of flying torpedoes shaped like the dandy fish appeared in the air above her as they immediately homed in towards her enemies. The massive salvo of fish-shaped projectiles split into two distinct groups as each stream rocketed forward on a collision course with their respective targets.

"Let's see you dodge this!" Uzume yelled out triumphantly.

Almost as if to spite her, the two flying monsters did just that. In complete defiance of the laws of physics, both the dragon and train engine shifted sideways in the air as they magically ninja dodged the projectiles.

"Wha-?" Uzume let out with a dumbstruck face.

"Yeah... enemies tend to do that in this world when you use a non-sound-based projectile on them," her other self supplied.

Before Uzume could go on another rant about how stupid this dimension was, all of the torpedoes suddenly disappeared into a shimmering green ripple in the air. Two other spatial distortions opened up behind the dragon and train at the same time as all of the redirected Umio torpedoes flew out of them. Caught completely unaware, the two monsters had no time to react as they found themselves bombarded by the fishy explosives.

"Hope you don't mind me taking the spotlight for a second!" Sync called out jokingly from behind them, the green glow on his hands making it quite clear what had just happened.

Trainborn Uzume wasted no time in taking advantage of this opportunity as she raised her whistle and let loose a piercing blast of blue energy. The enormous sound wave soared through the air before managing to make a direct hit with the stunned beasts. With a shocked roar and whistle, the train and dragon fell back towards the ground like a sack of bricks. With an enormous crash, the two monsters impacted against a ground just a few meters apart from each other as they left a gigantic crater in their wake.

"Now's our chance!" Uzume shouted. "Let's hit them with everything we've got!"

With that, she covered her fists with a flaming aura of orange energy. Likewise, her alternate self powered up her katana as it blazed to life in a similar manner. With a fierce battle cry, the two heroes rushed in together against their foes.

"Formation Skill: Ultimate Dream Combo!"

Both Uzumes seemed to disappear from view as they accelerated to unbelievable speeds. All that could be seen for several seconds was a massive chain of orange explosions detonating against the monsters as the heroes unleashed a devastating barrage of punches and sword slashes against them.

"It's not over yet!"

With a shared shout, the red-haired duo appeared on opposite ends of the dragon and train engine so that the two monsters were trapped between them. Uzume pulled back her right fist as the energy surrounding it took on a spiral shape, giving it the appearance of a giant drill. On the other end, Trainborn Uzume held up her sword as the light around it intensified to near-blinding levels. Before either monster could recover, Uzume swung her fist forward launching the large energy drill from her hand while her counterpart brought down her charged sword and unleashed a massive wave of destructive energy.

The ensuing explosion from the two attacks colliding was strong enough to send both Sync and Big Nep flying even with their allied protection status. Of course, neither of them sustained any actual damage from the blast as they managed to safely land on their feet and looked out over the devastated battlefield. As some of the dust settled, they found to their surprise that the train engine and dragon were still alive. Judging from their heavily damaged forms though, it was clear they were on their last slivers of health.

"Time to end this!"

The remaining debris finally dissipated to reveal both Uzumes standing tall with their megaphone and whistle in hand. Behind them, an innumerable number of sound-amplification glyphs hung in the air as they all pointed towards the dragon and train engine.

With identical smirks, the two Uzumes raised their weapons and unleashed the full force of their shout and whistle.

Complete and utter annihilation was the only way to describe the resulting attack. A sound blast equivalent to a nuclear detonation swept out and obliterated everything in front of the two heroes. Even the distant mountain range that happened to be in the way of the blast turned to dust as the attack vaporized it in an instant. Reality itself seemed to threaten to break apart as the entire realm shuddered violently at the catastrophic noise.

After what seemed like an eternity (though it was actually just a few seconds), the devastating attack came to an end as silence fell across the land.

"Do you think we got them?" Uzume asked as she lowered her megaphone.

Her alternate self put down her own weapon as she looked over the result of their attack. Though the dust had yet to fully settle, she could still see that a giant half-mile wide furrow was carved out of the earth where their attack had traveled. Based on the empty space where the mountain they had ended up obliterating was, it was safe to guess that the new ditch ran all the way to the very edge of the realm itself.

"Yeah," Trainborn Uzume answered. "I think we-"

Her declaration was cut short when a loud roar and whistle sounded out in front of them. As the two Uzumes looked on in shock, the debris cloud in front of them was swept away to reveal the still-intact forms of the dragon and train engine.

"What?!" Uzume cried out. "How are they still fine after being hit with such an obvious finishing move?!"

As it turned out, the two monsters were not as fine as they first looked. The attack definitely seemed to have an effect as both the dragon and train began to convulse violently. As the two heroes watched with wide eyes, the dragon let loose an ear-splitting roar as parts of its scaly black hide exploded outwards while the rest began to melt into a tar-like substance. Next to it, the train's metal exterior began cracking while what appeared to be rust rapidly spread over its blue paint job.

"Aw crap," Uzume muttered. "I forgot final bosses always have a second, tougher form."

The dragon chose this moment to let out another roar as it spread out its dissolving wings and fully displayed its nightmarish tar-like body. Turning its horrifying melting face towards Uzume, it opened its maw and...

promptly exploded into a large pile of dragon bones.

As Uzume blinked disbelievingly at the dragon's dead skeletal remains, the train engine let loose a final whistle as well before it promptly exploded into pieces leaving only an empty coal car as its carcass.

A long silence stretched out between the two heroes as they simply continued to stare at the remains of their respective 'final bosses'.

"Wait... that's it?" Uzume eventually asked aloud. "That's all there was to the fight? No multiple forms? No special attacks, gimmicks, or battle conditions?"

"Boss fights aren't exactly one of this world's strong points," her other self said. "Even so, I expected something at least a tiny bit more unique for the final main quest boss."

"I know right?" Uzume agreed. "This is just pathetic! I felt more victorious when I finally managed to kill a demon bunny!"

Her alternate self raised an eyebrow at this but did not get a chance to say anything as the four goddesses chose this moment to come down and address her.

"And thus the evil of the World-Eater is no more," Purple Heart declared. "Honored Trainborn. Your brave and noble actions have brought back hope and peace to this world. Songs will be sung of your victory this day. May history forever remember your great deeds."

"However, I sense that fate has yet a role for you to play," Black Heart continued. "Though this journey has come to a close, countless others yet remain for you to traverse."

"Return to your realm now, mortal," White Heart said. "Continue your path with our blessings."

"And when you have completed your count of days, know that the gates of Celestia will be open to you," Green Heart finished.

With their speech done, the four held out their hands and created a rainbow-colored portal in front of them.

"Hey, hold up," Uzume interrupted. "That's all you're doing for the final ending? My alternate self just saved the whole world for you guys and all she gets is a glorified 'good job'? Don't you think you should give her a proper end-credits celebration party at the least?"

The CPU shrank back in fear when the four goddesses turned to glare dangerously at her. Meanwhile, Trainborn Uzume simply laughed the whole thing off.

"It's fine," she told her other self. "Knowing that I saved the world is enough of a reward for me."

Saying that, she approached Uzume and held out her katana hilt-first.

"What-?"

"Take it," Trainborn Uzume said. "Take it as a token of appreciation for your help in defeating those monsters. You don't seem to use one-handed swords but I think it'll at least make for a decent trophy to have on display. You can have it to remind you of our victory today."

Uzume hesitated as she glanced down at the ornate and masterfully-crafted blade.

"I... I can't just take this. I mean, isn't this your strongest weapon? Don't you need it for the rest of your journey?"

Her other self gave a smirk as she put away her whistle and pulled out an identical-looking katana to the one in her other hand.

"Item duplication is a pretty handy glitch," she quietly told her surprised counterpart with a wink.

Uzume gave a grin to this as she accepted the gift and put it away into her inventory for safekeeping.

"Are you done yet?" White Heart asked irritably, dropping her noble pretense and reverting to her expected brash attitude. "We can't keep this thing open forever, you know."

Trainborn Uzume gave her other self a final smile before turning around towards the glowing portal. Just as she was about to step through it, Uzume spoke up once again.

"Oh, one more thing! I might've sort of taken on a bunch of side-quests and their related NPCs with me during my own journey. I'm probably going to head back to my home dimension after this so... um... if it's not too much of a bother, can you maybe help finish all of them in my place?"

Her other self gave an amused backwards glance as she answered.

"You mean those NPCs that were busy fighting each other in the ancient temple outside?" Seeing Uzume give a sheepish nod, she let out a small chuckle. "Sure, I'll make sure to help them out. They'll probably reset back to their starting locations once you leave so I'll pick them up then. Though considering the number of NPCs I spotted, it might take a while for me to get through them all."

With that said, Trainborn Uzume turned back towards the portal again.

"See ya later, me," she called out behind her. "It was fun beating up that giant dragon and train with you. Look me up if you ever happen to drop by this world again."

Giving a final stylish wave, the legendary hero strode forward and disappeared with a flash of light.

"So cool," Uzume uttered as the portal disappeared.

"You said it. She definitely gets a full ten out of ten points on the coolness scale."

Uzume let out a surprised yelp as she found a smiling Sync and Big Nep suddenly standing behind her.

"Wha-? When did you two get back here?!"

"Just now," Big Nep answered, putting away the empty popcorn bucket she was carrying into her inventory. "We figured you wouldn't want us to ruin your farewell scene with yourself."

Sync was just about to add in his own comment when the four goddesses floated over with dour looks.

"Now then, what shall we do with these troublemaking interlopers?" Black Heart said with her arms crossed.

"How about we beat the shit out of them for making us spend two entire weeks keeping their damn dragon in check?" White Heart said, pulling out her ax to emphasize her words.

Green Heart gave a sigh at her friend(?)'s suggestion. "Please mind your language. Need I remind you again that your vulgar display reflects poorly on all of us?"

As the two began to squabble, Purple Heart stepped up to address the three travelers with a sigh of her own.

"I believe it would be in all our interests for the three of you to simply return back to your world. If you require aid in doing so, I can at least create a portal back to your home dimension."

"Nah, I've got this," Sync replied.

After a fair bit of concentration, he managed to pull open a small green portal in front of him.

"Are you okay?" Big Nep asked in concern, noting her student's heavy breathing.

"I'm good," he reassured with a smile. "It's just a bit taxing trying to do this with barely any share energy around."

Uzume, meanwhile, walked up to face the four goddesses again.

"You know, I did just fulfill an ancient prophecy and saved both our worlds," she pointed out with an expectant smile. "I'm not saying you _have_ to but... I wouldn't mind getting some kind of awesome, legendary item as a reward. You know like some kinda fancy godly sword to go with my other self's katana maybe?"

The four goddesses minus White Heart just gave her a deadpan look. The berserker goddess, on the other hand, chose to respond to this by raising up her ax with a dangerous glare.

"I was just joking!" Uzume quickly backtracked. "Saving the day is a good enough reward for me!"

Deciding she had overstayed her welcome, the red-haired CPU quickly ran over to the portal that her friends were standing next to.

"You ready to go then?" Big Nep asked with a smile.

Uzume responded with a furious nod. "Definitely. Let's get out of this crazy place already."

Sync, however, seemed to have some unfinished business as he walked over to the nearby remains of the dragon and train.

"Hmm... I wonder what kind of cheese a dead dragon and train would turn into?"

Before either of his teammates could stop him, he pulled out his Cheese Stick and blasted both the large skeleton and coal car.

It was as if someone had detonated several tons of TNT in a massive cheese factory as cheese of all variety exploded outward. The gigantic mass of the dragon's skeleton along with the train car apparently equated to several billion cheese wheels as a literal tidal wave of the fermented dairy swept out across the holy land.

"I immediately regret my decision!"

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

With that final scream, Uzume's bizarre adventure finally came to a close as she and her friends were swept off into Sync's portal by the cheesy tide. As for the four goddesses – who had barely managed to escape to the sky in time – all they could do was watch with open mouths as their entire realm was submerged underneath the massive flood of cheese.

As the small green portal below them disappeared with an almost taunting flash, White Heart dropped all semblance of her divine image as she let loose her inner rage.

"YOU DAMN BRAT! COME BACK HERE SO I CAN FUCKING KILL YOU!"

* * *

 _Several days later, on an isolated island castle to the north..._

"My lady, there are rumors going about that Segami has finally awakened and is roaming the land."

The darkened figure sitting atop the throne tilted her head with interest as her glowing red eyes seemed to brighten.

"Hm, is that so? Then you know what must be done Dreamcast. Find her and bring her back to me at once."

"As you will it, Lady Saturn."

As her servant left the room, the twin-tailed overlord gave a fanged grin.

"Yes, soon the prophecy shall be fulfilled. Soon the tyranny of the sun shall come to an end!"

Assured of her victory, Sega Saturn devolved into full-blown maniacal laughter.

Unbeknownst to her, however, a certain red-haired adventurer just happened to start up a quest involving a group of vampire hunters...

* * *

 **And thus Trainborn Uzume's DLC adventure begins! Hopefully it won't be as buggy as her main quest. Though considering the world she's in, things will probably still glitch out even without Sync's intervention.**

 **For those of you who haven't played Skyrim, the last part is a reference to the DLC called _Dawnguard_ where you try to stop a bunch of vampires from blotting out the sun and taking over the world. I put it in as a fun little tie-in with the rest of the prophecy that Sync managed to uncover all the way back in chapter three. As for why I decided to have the SeHa Girls as the main vampire characters, I happened to recall the scene where Neptune called Saturn, 'Satan', in the crossover game. Figured it'd be fitting to have good old Sega Satan as the evil vampire overlord leading the whole thing. XD**

 **Anyways, I figured I'd include a little behind-the-scenes look at the making of this arc. Originally, I was going to have Uzume and the gang just bumbling through the main questline of Skyrim. However, I realized that things would be far too predictable for the people who played the game and hard to follow for anyone who didn't. So, I decided to ditch the idea and have the group bumble through their own wild-goose chase of an adventure instead. Trainborn Uzume's role was also changed as she was originally just going to be a dead heroic spirit who aided the group during the final battle against the dragon and train (referencing the dead heroes who help you in the final main quest of Skyrim). It seemed more fitting and fun to have Uzume's counterpart being an actual hero who kept getting unintentionally waylaid by the group's wacky adventure so I expanded her subplot and made her go through the main questline in their stead. Overall, I feel it worked out pretty well.**

 **Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, the number joke in the tavern was referring to the fact that most people have only played/know about Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim; the third, fourth, and fifth games in the Elder Scroll series. As for the lack of knowledge about the number 6, that should be fairly obvious. The day Elder Scrolls VI is announced is the day that world peace is achieved, pudding rains from the skies, everyone's favorite waifus come to life, and Half-Life 3 is officially released. So in other words, NEVER.***

 ***Edit: Huh, so it turns out Elder Scrolls VI was actually announced. Even if none of my other predictions came true, I suppose the fact that Todd Howard decided to stop re-releasing Skyrim for the millionth time is a miracle in and of itself. Kind of a pity though. I was looking forward to the Etch-A-Sketch release.**


	21. A Familiar Reunion

**Ch 21: A Familiar Reunion**

"Heh. And here we are again."

Vert did not respond to this as she simply sat in silence with her arms crossed. Across from her, Sync casually leaned back on the sofa in her office with his strange new staff still in hand.

Following the boy's cheesy entrance, Vert and her newfound guests had spent several minutes swimming their way out of her room. After summoning the Ran Rans and telling them to clean up the place, Vert had asked to speak privately with the boy in her office. Big Nep and Uzume (who was wearing a viking helmet and bear-skin cloak for some odd reason) had both complied with her wishes as they said their goodbyes to him. After squeezing the breath out of Sync, the older Neptune had warped herself and Uzume back home with a final cheery wave.

Left to themselves, Vert and Sync had walked towards the office together without a word said between them. For Vert, the silence had mostly been due to her trying desperately to sort out her thoughts. The boy's sudden appearance had certainly not helped her already jumbled thoughts in regards to her newfound suspicions about his involvement in her MMO. As for Sync, it was hard to tell why he had kept quiet but his amused demeanor seemed to indicate that he was simply waiting to see how Vert would react first.

"So what's it going to be, sis?" Sync asked, breaking the silence once again when it became clear that Vert would not speak up. "Aren't you going to ask me something?"

Vert was quick to note the absence of the awkward behavior he had been displaying around her since their meeting in the broadcast tower. Whereas before he had seemed to want to put some distance between himself and her, now he seemed to be back to how he was when they had first met. That is to say, annoyingly upfront and casual.

Putting aside this detail to ponder about later, Vert cleared her throat and asked the most immediate question at the moment.

"Where exactly did you disappear to with the older Neptune and Uzume? I thought you were still resting back in your room."

Sync seemed to pick up on the implications this question held as his smile widened.

"You didn't even bother to check up on me this whole time?" he asked in an exaggerated hurt tone. "I didn't know I had such a terrible older sister. And to think that I believed that you actually cared about me."

Vert's paranoia immediately went into high alert at this as she worried that she had accidentally set off one of his death flags.

"I do care about you!" she blurted out, hoping it would patch up whatever mistake she had made. "I was merely busy with my... work! That's right, my work! So much of it had piled up during my absence that I-"

"I was joking, sis," Sync cut off. His smile dropped into a thoughtful frown as he raised an eyebrow at her. "I have to wonder though. Why would you get so riled up over such an obvious tease?"

Vert had to mentally hold herself back from bashing her head against the wall for overreacting the way she did. As precarious as her situation was, she knew that panicking would only make things worse for her.

"Meh. You always were a strange one," Sync dismissed before Vert could say anything. With a smile at the offended look that appeared on her face, he continued on. "As for your earlier question, I simply stepped out for a bit to help Uzume on her little dragon quest. I'll spare you the details but it was definitely a bizarre adventure even by mini-Nep's standards."

"Adventure?" Vert asked. "How long were you gone for exactly?"

Sync seemed to think about this for a second before answering. "About two and a half days from your perspective. For me, it was over two weeks because of the dimensional time dilation."

Panic welled up inside her again as she barely stopped herself from leaping forward to check up on the boy in worry.

"You're not hurt, are you?" she asked instead, looking over him with a critical gaze.

Sync definitely seemed to notice this bizarre behavior as he shot her a confused look but quickly waved the whole thing aside once more.

"I'm fine. A bit tired from creating that portal back home but nothing a little bit of rest won't solve."

Vert continued to scrutinize him despite his words as she looked for any signs that he was fading away or hiding some sort of fatal injury. After spotting nothing that could potentially lead to a Game Over for her, she leaned back on her seat with a sigh of relief.

"That's good," she said aloud. Taking a moment to calm herself, she looked back over at the boy with a questioning look. "Speaking of which, what exactly is that staff you're holding?"

"I was wondering how long it'd take before you asked me that," Sync said with a smile. He twirled the cheese-adorned wooden staff in his hand for good measure before answering. "It's a handy little weapon that I call the Cheese Stick. As for what it does, it can shoot out a magical burst of energy that can turn anything into cheese. For example..."

With a casual flick of his hand, he aimed the staff on the fancy tea set laid out on the table between them. As Vert watched with wide eyes, a red bolt of energy shot out and hit the teapot and tea cups before transfiguring them into small blocks of white cheese.

"Huh. Looks like the magic's a lot weaker outside its home dimension," Sync noted. "I expected a lot more cheese to appear from that."

Giving a shrug, he reached out and grabbed one of the snack-sized cheeses before sampling it.

"Hm... Swiss. And a pretty well-aged one at that."

Getting over her shock, Vert shouted out in an annoyed tone.

"Don't eat my tea set! Those are extremely expensive!"

Sync let out a laugh to this as he put away his Cheese Stick and grabbed another piece of the transfigured cheese.

"Gotta say, I never thought I'd hear something like that before," he remarked jokingly.

Ignoring Vert's pout, he continued to enjoy his snack.

"You know, I think this would go pretty well with some wine," he commented after another bite. Saying that, he looked over at Vert questioningly. "I'm pretty sure you're the type of person to keep a vintage collection somewhere. Do you have any good selections that you'd personally recommend?"

Vert immediately shot him a disapproving glare at this.

"I am not letting you touch my wine collection! You're far too young to be drinking any sort of alcohol!"

"Come on, sis," Sync argued. "I'm a CPU Candidate. I'm older than I look."

"You're less than a month old!"

Sync let out an embarrassed laugh to this as he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand.

"Heh heh. I guess that logic really doesn't work for me. Still, if I'm allowed to own a laser blade and fight horrifying monsters at my age, shouldn't I also be allowed to drink?"

"No! The reason we have drinking laws is _because_ of our lax weapon policies! Do you know how much damage Gamindustri suffered in the past when all the kids went on drunken rampages with giant robots and city-destroying magic blades?"

"Um... I'm guessing a lot?"

"Allow me to put it this way. Leanbox being an island is not from natural circumstance."

Stunned silence filled the room as Sync stayed frozen with his cheese half-way to his mouth.

"Note to self," he eventually muttered. "Avoid all heavily-armed children if I end up in the past."

Another brief silence followed as Sync got over his shock and finished the rest of his snack. Wiping his hands and mouth with one of the napkins laid out on the table, he looked up to face Vert with another smile.

"Well, putting aside those... interesting historical revelations, I think it's about time we got down to the main reason we're here."

"What are you talking about?"

Sync answered with a light-hearted shrug. "Come on, sis. We both know you didn't drag me here just to make small talk. You obviously want to question me about everything that's happened during the battle with K-Sha."

"That's not it," Vert denied, despite the partial truth in his words. "I merely wished to-"

Before Vert could finish, the door to her office slammed open as an enraged, cheese crumb-covered Chika made her appearance.

"Die you brat!" she screamed at Sync, throwing out her spear as way of greeting.

Sync barely batted an eye as he casually created a spatial ripple to swallow up the incoming weapon.

"Good to see you too Chika," he called out tauntingly.

Seeing the Oracle pull out a Molotov cocktail and lighter in response, Vert quickly decided it was high time to intervene.

"Chika! What have I told you about using your weapons indoors after last time?!"

The reproachful tone managed to halt the Oracle's rampage as she lowered her lighter with a guilty expression.

"That I'm not allowed to use them unless there is a clear and obvious threat to the Basilicom and its residents," she recited off like a reprimanded child. She quickly perked up again though as she turned to Vert with a pleading look. "But sister! The brat assaulted me first with all that cheese! Shouldn't I be allowed to kill him for that?"

"To be fair," Sync cut in with a smile, "it wasn't my intention to bury you under all that cheese. That was just your bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." His smile widened as he took a closer look at her disheveled form. "By the way, you have a large piece of Pepper Jack stuck to your ribbon."

Before Chika could light up her explosive and destroy the office again, one of the Ran Rans walked in carrying Chika's spear.

"(´・ω・｀) How many times has Ran Ran told you not to teleport flying weapons to random locations?" she chided Sync in her high-pitched voice. "(´・ω・｀) Ran Ran barely caught this spear before it stabbed the Planeptune trade delegate."

Sync gave an embarrassed wince at the close call before offering an apology.

"Sorry about that Ran Ran. I was trying to set the exit point to Chika's room but I guess I must've miscalculated the coordinates. I'll make sure to pay better attention next time."

Ran Ran gave a nod to this while Chika began making angry Dogoo noises at the boy. This did not last for very long though as Ran Ran whacked the Oracle over the head with the blunt end of her spear.

"Ow!" Chika cried out indignantly. "What was that for?!"

"(´・ω・｀) Ran Ran thinks you should be nicer to Sync," Ran Ran reprimanded. "(´・ω・｀) He even gave you some of Lady Vert's underwear as a present."

"He what?!" Vert cried out. (As it was, her underwear drawer had been custom made to keep out Chika by requiring both an eye scan as well as a fingerprint scan to open; unfortunately, it seemed all of these measures were useless when pitted against Sync's abilities.)

Chika chose to ignore her pseudo-sister's outburst as she gave a huff.

"He only got me those so I wouldn't kill him for dyeing my hair orange!"

Ran Ran apparently realized that continuing this conversation was pointless as she gave a sigh and walked out of the office with Chika's spear still in her possession.

"Hey! Come back with my spear!"

Feeling a massive headache starting to build up, Vert decided to take back control of the situation before it got any worse.

"Chika. Put away the explosive and sit," she ordered firmly, motioning towards the seat next to her. After waiting for the Oracle to reluctantly obey her command, Vert shifted her glare over to Sync. "And you. Do not steal any of my underwear ever again. Am I clear?"

Sync passed this off with an easy smile that resembled the ones he gave the twins whenever they tried to assert their dominance over him. Figuring this was the best she was going to get from him though, Vert simply acknowledged this with a nod of her head.

"Good. Now that that's clear, let me set a few things straight."

"Chika," she addressed first, "from here on out, I expressly forbid you from attempting to kill Sync."

"WHAT?!" the Oracle shouted, instantly making Vert regret her decision to have her sit so close to her. "But... but Vert darling! He's nothing more than a dirty impostor who's only brought trouble into our lives! Why would you want to keep him alive?!"

Vert bit back a sigh as she steamrolled ahead.

"I have my reasons so just do as I say." Ignoring Chika's attempts to puppy-dog eyes her into changing her mind, she looked back over to Sync. "In return, I want you to stop antagonizing Chika with your pranks."

Sync responded by crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at her.

"You do realize asking me that is like telling Noire to stop being a Tsundere or Blanc to control her temper, right?" he asked rhetorically. "Pulling pranks on Chika is practically a basic instinct for me. And I'm sure she feels the same way about wanting to kill me as well."

To Vert's utter shock, Chika actually nodded her head in agreement with him.

"As much as I hate saying this, the brat's right. Plus, I wouldn't have a legit excuse to try and disembowel him if he stopped pranking me."

"Wait, you're trying to disembowel me now?" Sync asked with morbid curiosity. "I thought you were still trying to decapitate me."

"What are you talking about? I tried to poison you before this!"

"Oh, that's right. The poisoned tea cake incident. It's a good thing Ran Ran was immune to poisons or that could have ended badly."

Vert could only stare with an open mouth as she tried to wrap her head around the bizarre relationship the two had apparently built with each other during her absence. While it certainly could not be called anything friendly – or even healthy – it was easy to pick up that the pair had formed some sort of odd camaraderie with each other. At least, when it came to their perpetual game of cat and mouse that is.

Shaking her head in an attempt to dispel her continuously growing headache, she focused back on the situation at hand and tried to make the best of it.

"Very well. Then at least lower the number of pranks and attempted murders to only one a day. Any more than that and this entire nation is probably going to end up as an irradiated wasteland by the end of the month."

With a complete peace treaty out of the question, she figured this was the only way to limit the amount of damage the two caused. Plus, Sync's pranks were never intentionally harmful so Chika was fairly safe and she was certain the Oracle would never be able to catch her prey and do any real harm anyways.

Meanwhile, both Sync and Chika seemed to seriously consider this before the Oracle spoke up with a question.

"If I miss one of my daily killing attempts because of work, does it carry over to the next day?"

"That's a good point," Sync agreed (once again making Vert's mind nearly crash at the incomprehensible concept of the two working together). "I'll most likely end up missing a few pranking days too due to my mandatory play-dates with the twins and whatnot. Having our pranking and murdering attempts carry over sounds rather reasonable to me."

"Fine!" Vert conceded. "I'll allow up to three attempts to carry over! But no more than that! And if either of you try to break this rule, I'll... I'll..." Vert trailed off as she realized she did not have anything noteworthy she could do to either of them as punishment.

"Send us to our rooms without supper?" Sync supplied with a mocking smile. "Or maybe ban us from playing video games for a week?"

"I'll get very angry!" Vert shot out.

Judging from the boy's amused expression, this clearly did not impress him one bit. Chika, on the other hand, froze up as a traumatized expression fell across her face. Vert was temporarily confused by this acute reaction before remembering that the poor girl had once seen her completely lose it after being called fat by an extremely rude noble from Lowee. Long story short, even Blanc had been too terrified to pick a fight with her over this issue after seeing the end results of that massacre.

"I'll make sure to follow your rules so please don't get mad at me Vert darling!" Chika cried out, much to the surprise of Sync. Meanwhile, Vert gave an embarrassed groan as she wished that Chika would just forget about that major blemish on her calm and graceful image (even if that was a bit of an unreasonable thing to ask considering what had happened).

"Um... I feel like I'm missing out on something here but sure," Sync said with a shrug. "I don't mind abiding by your rules either. Just don't expect me to limit my pranks for anyone else though."

Vert gave another groan before deciding to settle for what she got.

A rather stilted and awkward silence followed before Sync perked up as if remembering something.

"Oh, right. If we're bringing up important matters that need to be discussed, we should really get started on the whole 'announcing me to the public' thing."

Vert gave the boy a curious glance while Chika began making angry cat noises at him.

"I figured you'd want to avoid being seen by the public for a while after what happened in Lastation," Vert noted. "It would be good to give everyone a bit more time to settle down before we release this information."

Sync gave an amused snort to this. "Sis, we live in the age of the internet. Noire's soldiers know who I am so it's only a matter of time before they leak the information online. In fact, I bet the only reason they haven't done so already is probably because Noire's been working them like slaves to keep up with the reorganization effort."

Vert gave a thoughtful frown at this as she looked over at Chika.

"Speaking of which, how exactly did news of Sync's identity not get out yet?" she asked. "I'm rather surprised none of our own workers released this information to the press already."

Chika gave a half-proud, half-annoyed huff. "Of course none of them would spread any false rumors about this impostor. I caught one of the workers trying to take a picture of the brat and post it online so I... made an example out of him."

Vert honestly could not figure out whether to let out a sigh of relief at their secret being safe or to facepalm at her Oracle's behavior. Sync, however, was quick to respond as he gave Chika a look of mock gratitude.

"Aw, thanks Chika. I didn't know you cared enough to keep me safe from the paparazzi."

The Oracle immediately pulled out her Molotov cocktail again as she looked over expectantly at Vert.

"Vert darling? That spear throw earlier didn't count towards my one-a-day limit, right?"

"It counts," Vert quickly shut down. Ignoring Chika's disappointed look, she shifted her attention back to Sync. "Putting all that aside, are you certain about revealing yourself to the public? There won't be any going back after this."

Sync gave her a puzzled look. "Going back to what? It wasn't like I was trying to keep myself hidden or anything."

Hearing how casually he was willing to throw away his anonymity, Vert mentally decided that her 'prince-in-hiding' theory would need to be reworked a bit (her logical self simply banged her head against the wall at this).

"Very well," she sighed. "I'll begin making preparations for your announcement ceremony two days from now. You look as if you could use some more rest so take tomorrow off to recover."

Sync seemed rather put off by her oddly thoughtful suggestion as he gave her a questioning look. When she refused to elaborate any further, he gave a shrug and apparently put this matter aside to ponder about later.

"Sounds good. Is there anything I need to prepare for the event though? Like do I need to wear a formal suit and give a proper speech or something?"

Vert would have been extremely hard-pressed to say that she was not just a tiny bit tempted to see the boy dressed up in a butler outfit. Thankfully, she managed to shove aside that thought before her inner PerVert could catch wind of it and answered Sync with a cough.

"I'll send one of the workers or Ran Ran to get your measurements later tonight. My personal tailor can easily have your suit prepared by the ceremony so there's no worries there. As for the speech, leave that to me. All you'll need to do is introduce yourself and say a short greeting." She paused to give him a sharp glare. "And please refrain from saying or doing anything foolish. This is going to be an official ceremony and it would reflect badly on the entire nation if you did anything inappropriate."

Much to her chagrin, Sync answered with a mischievous smirk.

"Don't worry, sis. I'll make sure not to surprise everyone _too_ much."

Vert's groan was interrupted by Chika suddenly grabbing onto her shoulders and shaking her violently.

"Darling!" she cried loudly, big dramatic teardrops appearing in her eyes. "You can't really be serious about accepting this brat as the CPU Candidate?!"

"Let...go...of...me!" Vert shouted as she was swung back and forth like a rag doll.

It took a long while for the Oracle to finally calm herself down and release her victim. Even after that, Vert had to wait a few seconds for the whiplash to subside before she could provide an answer.

"There's no use denying any more that the boy is really the CPU Candidate of Leanbox," she said, even though mentally she still had some major doubts about this. "If you want to complain, go speak with Histoire about it."

Even Chika visibly hesitated at this suggestion as she clearly did not wish to antagonize her senior Oracle about this matter. Instead, she settled for giving a childish pout.

"This isn't fair!" she complained. "Why does he get to be counted as your brother when I'm the one who's been trying so hard to be your little sister?"

"He's not my b-"

Vert barely managed to stop herself from saying her ingrained automatic response. With a panicked look, she quickly glanced over at the boy to make sure her careless words had not ended up erasing him from existence.

To her relief, Sync seemed as tangible as ever as he simply gave her a taunting smile.

"Well?" he prodded. "I'm not your what?"

Both Chika and Sync stared intently at Vert as she felt like slamming her face down onto the coffee table for putting herself in a corner like this.

"Never mind," she eventually said. "The fact remains that he's the Leanbox CPU Candidate and that's all there is to say about it." _For now_ , she added in her mind.

Neither party seemed impressed by this response but Vert quickly steered the conversation away from this topic before either of them could complain.

"Anyways, there's one more matter I wished to speak with you about before we go," she addressed to Sync.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

Vert went over the plan she had been building up this entire time in her head as she gave a mental nod to herself.

"There's an upcoming event in _4GO2_ next weekend and I was wondering if you'd like to join me for it."

Rather than directly asking him about this matter and potentially being fooled by his lies, Vert decided the best way to get her answers regarding the boy's possible connection with Amadeus was through first-hand observation. While she had little talent for reading people in the real world, she was practically impossible to fool when it came to one's video game expertise. If she managed to see the boy playing the game even once, she was confident that she would be able to determine his real skill level. Even if he tried to hide it, she was certain she could push him into a corner during the event and make him reveal his true abilities.

"Your MMO?" Sync asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "That's rather unexpected. Why do you suddenly want to include me in your hobby?"

Before Vert could reply, Chika latched onto her once again.

"Dar-ling!" she whined as Vert tried once again to free herself. "Why are you inviting the brat to play games with you and not me?"

"That's because you have no interest in playing _4GO2_!" Vert quickly answered, struggling to escape Chika's crushing embrace. "You've always refused whenever I asked you in the past!"

"That's because you keep leaving me behind whenever we do play together!"

The pair's awkward wrestling match only came to a halt when Sync gave an amused laugh.

"You know, I feel like I could make quite a fortune filming the two of you right now and selling the footage online." Seeing the pair immediately separate with embarrassed looks, he gave another chuckle. "Oh, don't stop now. Things were getting particularly good with Chika slowly reaching towards-"

"Shut up you little pervert!" Without any regard for their previously established agreement, the Oracle lunged towards the boy with bloodlust gleaming in her eyes.

Sync seemed fully prepared for this however as he waved his hand and created a large spatial tear in front of him. Unable to stop her forward momentum, Chika ended up jumping straight through the portal as it immediately closed up behind her.

Silence fell across the room for a bit as Sync dusted off his hands and gave a satisfied stretch.

"Where did you send her?" Vert eventually asked.

"The dumpster," he replied idly with a laugh. Ignoring Vert's disapproving look, he continued on. "I doubt she'll stay there for very long though. Of course, I'm fairly certain nothing short of you adopting her as your actual sister will distract her from trying to kill me again once she gets back."

He paused for a bit as he suddenly gave her a thoughtful look. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you this for quite some time. Why _haven't_ you adopted Chika as your younger sister? I mean, yeah, she won't be related to you by blood but does that really matter? She seems more than ecstatic about the idea and you're just as obsessed with the whole little sister business so it seems like an obvious win-win situation."

Perhaps it was due to the fact that he was the one asking her this but a long-buried memory threatened to surface in her mind at this question. Without even a second thought, Vert violently squashed the memory back down before glaring at the boy.

"It's none of your business," she snapped.

It was not until she had fully calmed herself down a few seconds later that she noticed Sync's surprised expression at her harsh reply. With an embarrassed cough, she quickly tried to backtrack in order to waylay his suspicions. "Ahem. I mean... it's complicated." Seeing that his expression did not change, she gave a loud sigh. "Look, can we please just drop the subject? I'd rather we didn't talk about this."

For a moment, Vert was afraid he was going to continue pressing her for more information. To her surprise and relief, however, he complied with her request by giving a shrug.

"Fine. You had enough decency to hold back from interrogating me about any personal information during this meeting so the least I can do is extend you the same favor."

His questioning gaze still lingered though as he pinned her with a serious expression.

"There is one thing I want to make sure though," he voiced. Making sure he had her full attention, he asked his question. "Do you truly wish for a younger sister?"

Vert's initial reaction was to lie and tell him that she was fine with simply having him as her... sibling. However, for some odd reason, her gamer senses strongly urged her to tell the truth in this situation. Having always been one to follow her instincts more than pure logic (something her logical side knew all too well), she decided to come clean with her wish.

"Yes, I still want a younger sister."

Sync stared intently at her for a few seconds as he seemed to try and figure out whether she was telling the truth or not. Just as Vert began to feel a bit uncomfortable under his unflinching gaze, he suddenly got up from the sofa and turned away.

"I understand sis," he called out as he headed towards the door. "I'll make sure you get your wish."

Alarm bells immediately started ringing in Vert's head at this statement. As far as potential death flag triggers went, this one seemed almost painfully obvious. His serious tone combined with his words made it seem as if he was going to sacrifice himself for her wish to be fulfilled. This, of course, was something she absolutely could not allow. Asides from the fact that she would lose the game she had set out for herself, Histoire would most definitely not approve of her selfish actions if she let this event occur. And as far as she was concerned, gaining a younger sister in this manner would be meaningless if she ended up being scolded to death by the angry Oracle.

"Sync, wait!"

Hearing her panicked shout, Sync slowly turned back around towards her. To her utter confusion, however, she found a large mischievous smile on his face rather than the expected stoic look.

"I'll be honest though sis," he let out. "I've never cross-dressed before so I have no idea how convincing I can look as a younger sister."

A lengthy silence fell over the room as Vert's mind slowly tried to process what she had just heard. It took several more minutes before she finally managed to connect all the dots and realized that the boy had actually been messing with her the entire time.

"You..." Vert eventually huffed, unable to say anything more as she was lost between a massive wave of relief, anger, and embarrassment.

Seeing her flabbergasted expression, Sync burst into his loudest laughter yet causing Vert's face to redden even further.

"Wow, I can't believe how seriously you took all that," he eventually managed to say, clutching his sides from laughing so much. "That look on your face was absolutely priceless!"

Vert simply stayed silent throughout all this as her face began to look more and more like an over boiling tea pot.

Luckily for her, Sync managed to regain control of himself not too long after as his laughter finally subsided.

"Ah, the fun of teasing you is second only to riling up Chika and Noire," he commented, earning a dark look from Vert. Letting out one final chuckle, he continued on in a more thoughtful yet still light-hearted tone. "Well, judging from your reaction just now, I'd say I'm on the right track when it comes to the true reason behind your sudden concern for me."

Vert immediately perked up at this as she shot him a surprised look.

"Wait, are you saying that was all just a ploy to figure out my motive?"

Sync flashed her a playful grin before turning back towards the door once more.

"You're not the only one trying to figure out other people's secrets, sis," he called out teasingly.

Without giving Vert a chance to recover, he headed out of the office. However, he paused just outside the open doorway as he seemed to remember something.

"Oh, that's right. I never gave you an answer to your MMO invitation." He turned his head to give her an amused sideways grin. "If Leanbox is still standing after my announcement ceremony, then sure. I'll be glad to join you for a game. If it's anything like our interaction today, I'm sure it'll be quite... interesting."

With that mysterious and slightly ominous words, he warped away leaving behind only the faint echoes of his laughter behind.

Vert was still in the process of getting over her shock when a trash-covered Chika suddenly came rampaging through the door.

"WHERE IS HE?! I'M GOING TO GUT HIM LIKE A FISH!"

Vert took one look at her Oracle before letting out a large sigh.

"Chika, please put away that chainsaw gun. And go get yourself cleaned up before doing anything else. I don't think the Ran Rans will appreciate you trailing trash everywhere."

As her enraged Oracle ignored her and tromped off with a bunch of used tea bags and an old slice of pizza still stuck in her hair, Vert could not help but sigh once again as she felt her troubles had just increased exponentially.


	22. The Surprise Event

**Ch 22: The Surprise Event**

Things became quite hectic for Vert as she prepared for the dreaded announcement ceremony. Of course, it was not the actual planning and setting up of the event that required so much of her focus (all of that was being efficiently handled by her Basilicom staff members and the Ran Rans). No, for Vert, the busywork came from making sure all of her armed forces were properly deployed and prepared for the inevitable disaster to follow.

After witnessing the nation-wide chaos that Sync had managed to produce with a single TV broadcast, Vert was not about to foolishly head into a similar situation without taking some proper precautions. To that end, she had deployed most of her army to provide a rather overkill amount of security around the main pavilion in front of the Basilicom where the event was to be held. The rest of the army had been stationed all around the other major cities with similar orders to stay on high alert while the air force was told to prepare for an immediate nation-wide aerial bombardment of knockout gas at her command. As for the navy, they were told to form a temporary blockade around Leanbox with strict orders not to allow anyone or anything through during the day of the event. If things really did deteriorate into a nation-wide crisis, Vert was determined to keep the rioting contained within her own nation. She had a feeling that neither Noire nor Blanc would be so forgiving of a crazed fan invasion into their lands as Neptune had been about K-Sha's incursion.

Ironically enough, Vert's precautions to prevent a riot ended up stirring up her citizens even before the day of the announcement. As expected, the massive increase in military activity did not go unnoticed by the Leanbox public. Having only been told that their CPU would soon be making an important announcement - and receiving no further information about the recent military deployments in the meantime - the citizens of Leanbox were quick to assume the worst. Rumors and theories immediately spread like wildfire as whispers filled the streets about the start of another Console War. According to some, Noire was apparently preparing to invade their country, pointing (rather mistakenly) to the recent invasion of Planeptune as proof of the Tsundere's plan for conquest. Meanwhile, others claimed that Blanc had finally snapped at the sad fact of being pitifully lacking in the chest area compared to their glorious Lady Vert and was coming to seek her vengeance. There were even some who proclaimed that Lady Vert was preparing to invade and annex Planeptune in order to officially turn Nepgear into her younger sister. Despite all these vastly differing theories though, one thing remained true in all of the citizens' minds: They would support their beloved goddess no matter the circumstance. Rather than panicking about the onset of another war, the citizens banded together in a stunning show of national pride as they braced themselves for the coming conflict and waited for their great goddess to make her appearance and lead the way forward when the time came.

Of course, Vert had absolutely no idea that any of this was happening as she was too busy running to and fro from her office and room trying to double-check her event preparations while also getting through her daily quests on her MMO.

And like that, the long day and a half passed by and the anticipated moment of the announcement ceremony finally came.

* * *

 _Okay... all ground forces have reported that they're in position, bombers are fully fueled and good to go, my warships have the entire island on lock-down, and the Ran Rans are prepared to head out and escort all non-violent civilians to the emergency shelters once the rioting starts._

Vert nervously bit her lips as she paced about inside her room and ran through all her preparations for the umpteenth time that day. To her, it was not a matter of _if_ her citizens rioted but simply a matter of _when_. Noire's fans might have been the craziest out of the four nations but her own hardcore fans were nothing to scoff at either. The moment Sync was revealed to be their CPU Candidate, it was all but inevitable that all hell would break loose.

At this thought, Vert once again pulled out the stun pike she had brought over from her adventure in Lastation. After turning it on and confirming to herself that it was still charged, she put it away and took multiple deep breaths to calm herself.

 _You've got this Vert. This can't be any worse than the time you had to make a public apology after forgetting to include a_ **Start** _button on the new computer operating system._

 _Indeed,_ her logical side agreed. _I highly doubt anything can top that major screw up._

Vert gave a wince at this as she stepped into her mental landscape.

 _I'm already nervous enough without your contributions, thank you very much,_ Vert huffed at her glasses-wearing counterpart.

Logical Vert simply crossed her arms upon seeing her main self within the crowded mental meeting hall.

 _I highly doubt now is the time for you to come in here and get caught up in another one of your... our mental hijinks,_ she pointed out, choosing to ignore her main's self's previous comment.

Vert simply gave a pout to this. _You're the one who decided to speak to me first!_

 _And you could have simply answered without dragging yourself down here,_ Logical Vert retorted back matter-of-factly.

Unable to think of a comeback for this, Vert fell silent as she instead went back to fretting about the dreaded announcement ceremony.

For a few mental minutes, only the sounds of the other Verts chatting with one another and the PerVert flipping through a lewd doujinshi could be heard within her head. Eventually, Vert turned to her logical side again with a heavy sigh.

 _Do you think we'll be okay? s_ he asked in a nervous voice. _Can Leanbox really survive through all this?_

Logical Vert gave a scoff at her worry. _Honestly, we can probably survive through a full-scale invasion with all the preparations you made. I personally think all these measures are a bit overkill but considering what we just saw in Lastation, I can't exactly fault you for your paranoia either._

This did little to alleviate Vert's worry as she began biting at her fingernails in anxiety.

Feeling a rare bout of pity for her main self, Logical Vert gave a sigh of her own before trying to calm her. _As long as the boy doesn't do anything too foolish, I'm sure we'll be able to make it through this with acceptable losses._

Vert was just about to ask what her logical self constituted as 'acceptable losses' when a dark shape suddenly smashed through one of the large windows above the meeting hall.

As all of the Verts currently inside watched with various shocked looks (or vague curiosity in the case of the PerVert and Apathy Vert), a Vert wearing a black trench coat and a stylish face mask landed gracefully in the middle of the room following her dramatic entrance. With a wide smirk on her face, she tightened her grip on the metal briefcase she was holding before bolting for the exit doors.

 _Someone stop her!_ a high-pitched version of Vert's voice cried out from the broken window. As everyone turned their gaze, the diminutive form of Cupid Vert flew into the room with a harried look. _Thief Vert just stole all of my hearts!_

The more lawful aspects of Vert's mind immediately leaped into action at this as they tried to apprehend the fleeing thief persona. However, their paths were quickly blocked by those who were friends with the phantom thief as they tried to buy her time to escape. Unfortunately, this confrontation ended up igniting all the pent-up stress that had been accumulating in Vert's mind for the past few days as the two groups began to assault each other in a blinded rage. The various other personas in the room tried to break up the two warring factions but only ended up getting dragged into the frenzied fighting as the entire room soon devolved into an all-out senseless brawl.

Meanwhile, off in their relatively safe corner, Logical Vert simply took in this pandemonium with a deadpan look before giving the mother of all facepalms.

 _Hurry up and get this entire ordeal over with before your stress ends up killing all of us,_ she managed to mutter to her main self.

Vert quietly gave a nod as she watched the PerVert grab Biker Vert's motorcycle and beat it's owner over the head with it for knocking away her unholy doujinshi. Suppressing the urge to give a facepalm of her own, the CPU quickly left the mental war zone and made her escape back to the slightly less insane realm of reality.

* * *

"Talking to your imaginary friends again, sis?"

Vert gave a startled yelp as Sync's voice came from behind her just as she returned from the depths of her mental madhouse.

"Stop sneaking up on me like that!" she complained, turning around with a flustered look. "And I wasn't talking to-"

The rest of her words died off into stunned silence as she fully laid eyes on the boy. Or more specifically, the new clothes he was wearing.

Rather than a simple tuxedo like Vert had been expecting, her tailor had apparently decided to go all-out with her latest project. As it was, Sync was now wearing a royal-looking white tunic bordered with green and black accents, a loose black belt with flowing green embroidery around his waist, and an expensive-looking pair of white slacks that ended just above his matching black dress shoes. To top it all off, his signature green coat had been replaced by a regal black cape that featured a dark green interior. It was clear extra effort and skill had been put into this outerwear as the intricate silver embroidery, stylish high collar, and asymmetrical design that fully hid its wearer's right arm from view expertly served its purpose of acting as the fancy ensemble's centerpiece.

Seeing Vert continue to gawk at him with her mouth hanging open, Sync gave a teasing smile as he stylishly brushed aside his hair with his left hand like a stereotypical bishounen anime character.

"I'm guessing you like what you see?"

Luckily for the CPU, the PerVert was too busy piledriving DJ Vert through a table at the moment to realize what was going on and start filling her head with inappropriate thoughts. Even so, she was hard-pressed to keep herself from blushing as she tried to muster up an annoyed tone to answer him with.

"Wh...What are you talking about? I... I simply wasn't expecting to see you looking so... so..."

"Breathtakingly handsome?" Sync supplied jokingly, lowering his hand with a mocking grin.

This finally managed to snap Vert out of her surprised reverie as she suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and answered the boy in a flat tone.

"I was going to say that you look a lot more... dignified in that outfit."

As it was, she could not help but feel that his current image helped solidify her theory about him being some sort of alternate-dimension prince. Okay, perhaps he did not exactly match the fairy-tale 'prince charming' archetype she had been imagining (his current wardrobe made him look much more like a heir to some militaristic imperial regime) but there was no denying that he was able to pull off the high-class nobility look fairly well. Of course, the image could have been a lot more perfect if he was not wearing a playful grin that seemed to be silently taunting her.

Realizing that her thoughts were starting to wander again, Vert quickly shook her head and tried to change the subject.

"Ahem. Anyways, did my tailor create that design or did you come up with it?"

Sync seemed to debate whether or not to continue teasing her before apparently deciding to cut her some slack.

"The cape was the only thing I personally requested," he explained. " I wanted to keep my regular coat as part of my outfit but your tailor seemed to take professional offense at that. After a bit of an argument, we eventually compromised by deciding to add a cape instead." He paused to shift his new outer garment with his shoulders a bit before continuing. "I'll admit, it is a bit heavy and far less comfortable than my coat but it does make me feel less exposed at least. Plus, it allows me to keep my Share Blade equipped and hidden from view."

Vert raised an eyebrow after peering around the folds of the cape and catching a glimpse of the boy's mechanized arm unit.

"Why are you bringing that to the ceremony?" she asked. "Or is it that you can't take it off?"

"Oh I can take it off just fine," he answered. "It's just that it takes a while to recalibrate back to my Share energy if I take it off and put it back on. It's rather annoying having to wait for it to become usable again in an emergency situation so I prefer to just keep it on me whenever possible." His smile took on a mischievous edge as he continued. "And judging from all the military personnel you put on alert today, I'd say the chances of an emergency situation arising are fairly high."

Vert immediately pinned him with a stern gaze as she crossed her arms.

"You better not be planning to pull any pranks today," she warned. "There's certain to be some serious public backlash at this news and I don't need you stirring up any additional trouble."

To her annoyance and dread, Sync passed this off with a light chuckle.

"You obviously haven't been checking the local news lately, sis. I highly doubt I'll need to do anything special today to subvert anyone's expectations."

Before Vert could ask what he meant, a knock came from outside her room's door.

"Lady Vert?" one of the female Basilicom workers called out. "Everyone has gathered and the camera crews are on standby. You can make your announcement whenever you are ready."

Vert bit back a groan as she realized the moment of reckoning had finally come at last.

"Tell everyone I'll be out in ten minutes," she replied curtly.

"Understood my lady." The staff member was heard taking a step back before she seemed to remember something and spoke up again. "Oh, and one other thing. No one's been able to find Miss Chika since this morning. Do you happen to know where she is?"

Sync spoke up before Vert could express her confusion about this.

"Don't worry about Chika. She's just a bit... preoccupied with some other business at the moment. She'll be back by tomorrow morning."

"Oh! Master Sync!" the worker said, her voice suddenly sounding rather flustered. "I... I didn't realize you were there. Um... I'll... uh... go inform everyone else about Miss Chika's situation then. Please excuse me."

Vert immediately turned to raise an eyebrow at Sync as the sound of the worker's rapidly retreating footsteps faded away.

" _Master_ Sync?" she said, repeating back the way that the worker had addressed him in a confounded tone.

Sync simply gave a rather embarrassed laugh to this as he tried to pass it off with a shrug. As much as Vert wanted to continue pressing him for a proper answer, she realized she was short on time and that there were more important matters to address at the moment.

"Never mind," she said with a shake of her head. "Just tell me what you did to Chika."

Sync's cheerful demeanor quickly returned as he gave an amused grin. "Oh, nothing much. I just duct-tapped her to the ceiling of her room."

"You did what?!"

Again, Sync gave a shrug. "Hey, you said I'm allowed to prank her up to once a day. I just decided to use today's prank to keep her from causing any additional trouble. After all, I highly doubt you'd want her to come after me with a harpoon-gun in the middle of the ceremony or something like that."

As much as Vert hated to admit it, she had to agree that the boy had a point. Deciding not to comment about this matter any further, she instead just buried her head in her hands and wished the day to be over already .

"By the way, sis," Sync piped up after a moment. "Aren't you going to dress up for the event as well? Or are you just going to go in that usual dress of yours?"

Vert let out a groan as she realized she did not even have the luxury of lamenting her situation. Lowering her hands, she briefly concentrated to activate her HDD. Rather than putting on her normal processors however, she instead focused on equipping her formal dress as the transformation kicked in. The light around her soon faded away as she reappeared in her HDD form wearing a simple yet elegant white dress decorated with green ribbons.

"Huh," Sync let out, looking more intrigued than anything else. "So you can actually put on different clothes instead of your processors when you transform?"

Vert's increased vanity in her transformed state made her feel a slight tinge of annoyance at the boy's complete lack of mention at how beautiful she no doubt looked in her formal dress. Thankfully, her Green Heart personality was also more mature and composed than her usual self was so she was able to simply ignore this feeling rather than childishly pout about it like she normally would have.

"As long as you have the desired clothes in your inventory, it is a simple matter to equip it as you transform," she explained to him instead. As Sync gave her an understanding nod, she stopped to look over him with a newfound critical gaze. "Hm... it's a pity you can't properly transform. It would have been far more appropriate to make your first appearance before the citizens in your HDD form."

Sync gave a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head. "Heh heh. Well, we could always call in Ram or Rom if you really need me to transform. Of course, I highly doubt Blanc would be too happy about lending me her Shares again for something like that."

Vert shook her head to this as she gave a soft sigh. "I was simply being rhetorical. I'd rather avoid having Lowee involved in a matter such as this." She paused as a thought occurred to her. "Though now that you mention it, I am surprised that Blanc hasn't barged in here already after finding out about what happened in Lastation."

Sync gave a shrug. "C-Sha's probably been holding her back so that I could get a chance to fully recover. She's thoughtful like that."

Vert inclined her head slightly as she agreed this was the most likely scenario as well. Unfortunately, this also meant that Blanc was very likely to come storming in once the public broadcast of Sync's appearance went live and showed him in perfect health. Hopefully though, the wrathful goddess would at least have enough tact to wait for the national announcement to end before invading the country.

With a tired groan, Vert pushed aside the thought of this inevitable confrontation and decided to deal with the main issue in front of her first.

"Well then, shall we?" Vert said, motioning towards the door as she mentally braced herself for the absolute worst.

"After you, _milady_ ," Sync replied jokingly.

Even in her Green Heart form, Vert could not help but roll her eyes to this as she opened the door and headed out.

* * *

The stage for the announcement had been set on the large pavilion underneath the arch of the Leanbox Basilicom. While Vert would have normally just given out her speeches from the top of the Basilicom's outer announcement platform, she had decided to choose a more visible location this time so that the crowd could get a direct view of Sync rather than having to rely on the cameras. Aside from that, the closer proximity between Vert and the crowd would also allow her to more easily intervene once the rioting started. If she was lucky, there was the minute chance that she could knock out the first few instigators herself and maybe even stop the chaos before it truly began to spread. Of course, considering her luck so far, this was about as likely to occur as her favorite 18+ BL visual novel getting a big anime studio adaptation.

Forcibly pushing aside her trepidation, Vert took a deep breath and walked up the steps to the raised podium. As she reached the top and scanned the massive crowd before her, she quickly realized that something was already off about the situation. Rather than the usual buzz of confusion and light excitement that accompanied most of her surprise announcements, there was a resolute sort of tension in the atmosphere that would not have felt out of place at a military rally. In fact, the solemn looks on most of the citizens almost made it seem as if they were waiting for her to give out an official declaration of war.

 _Please don't tell me the boy's done something already,_ Vert mentally groaned.

Unfortunately, she was already in plain view of her audience at that point and could not glance back down to check on Sync's reaction. Praying to RNGesus that she was not walking blindly into some massive prank, she cleared her throat and began her speech.

"Citizens of Leanbox," she spoke out, her tone confident and steady despite her inner worry. She noted that the crowd immediately straightened up at the sound of her voice but she tried not to think too hard about it. Instead she focused on getting through the basic formalities. "I thank you all for taking time off from your busy schedules to gather here today on such short notice. It is this such dedication that allows our nation to prosper as the greatest in all of Gamindustri."

The rest of her speech continued on in the same vein as Vert waxed poetic about the glory of Leanbox and greatness of its citizens; pretty much the standard fare when it came to any public announcement made by the CPUs. However, the reaction from her audience was anything but standard.

Rather than the usual lull in attention she got during these portions, the crowd seemed to become more... well, motivated was probably the best way to put it. Like an army listening to their commander giving a rousing speech before a big battle, the citizens seemed to hang onto her every word. In fact, she even spotted an elderly man place his hand solemnly over his chest and shed a tear when she talked about Leanbox's past triumphs. As weirded out by all this as she was though, she kept up her calm facade all the way through to the end of her speech where she finally got around to the main point of the announcement.

"Everyone, what I am about to tell you now will mark a momentous point in Leanbox's history." The entire audience somehow managed to snap even further to attention at this; so much so that Vert would have had a hard time distinguishing between her soldiers and the civilians if not for their uniforms. Feeling ever more anxious, she stalled a bit further to try and soften the blow as much as possible (even if this task was about as feasible as trying to stop an oncoming avalanche with a barricade made of toothpicks).

"I am warning you now that the news I am about to tell you will be rather... shocking. However, I ask that you please control yourselves and not let your emotions get the better of you."

The tension in the air was so dense that it was on the verge of turning into a black hole. Luckily, there was no repeat performance of Nepgear's failed gravitational experiments as someone in crowd suddenly spoke up.

"We can take whatever news you have, Lady Green Heart! Believe in us!"

It was impossible to tell who said this but the declaration seemed to help diffuse some of the tension as everyone in crowd nodded their heads and mumbled their own agreements to this sentiment.

"No matter what happens, we'll always support you Lady Green Heart!" a young man shouted, a loud cheer from the crowd accompanying his words.

Though she was still a bit confused at the reaction she was getting, Vert could not help but feel deeply moved by her citizens' display of heartfelt devotion.

"Everyone..." she breathed out, emotion leaking into her voice.

"Hell yeah!" another voice in the crowd yelled. "It doesn't matter who we're going to war with! Leanbox will take them all down in a flash!"

"Wait, what?"

Vert froze in complete befuddlement as she slowly tried to comprehend this revelation. Unfortunately, she opened her mouth before her mind had a chance to properly recover and sort everything out.

"War? What war? The reason I called everyone here today was to introduce Leanbox's new CPU Candidate."

It took a second before Vert realized she had just dropped her bombshell of a news in possibly the most careless manner possible. As she looked out at the crowd with a horrified look, she could practically hear, no _feel_ , the massive screeching noise as her citizens' minds all came to a sudden and violent halt.

Vert had little time to berate herself as things quickly took a turn for the worse. Before anyone could say anything - or just recover their senses in general - a bright flash of green suddenly erupted next to Vert. With a sound resembling a massive thunderclap, a large green portal flared into existence with copious amounts of sparks and lightning dancing across its borders. As everyone watched with wide eyes, an imposing figure in a dark cape slowly stepped out of this ominous tear in space.

Vert barely held back from facepalming in front of her citizens as Sync stepped into the open and dramatically walked up next to her on the podium. To his credit, the boy was hamming up his performance very effectively as he exuded an imposing aura that actually managed to be rather convincing thanks to his new outfit. With an overemphasized wave of his left hand, he closed off the flashy portal behind him as he finally came to a halt and imperiously stared down at the assembled crowd before him. All of the citizens were in a state of near catatonic shock at this point as they simply looked up with open mouths. Vert, on the other hand, felt only a massive amount of exasperation as she noticed the faint smirk tugging at the edges of Sync's impassive mask.

For several long seconds, Sync continued to silently stare down at the crowd causing them to sweat nervously underneath his piercing gaze. Then, without any warning, he completely dropped the imperious facade as he gave them a wide and cheerful grin.

"Hey everyone! My name's Sync and I'm your new CPU Candidate!" he called out happily. To further throw everyone for a loop, he raised his left hand and gave a peace sign while giving a playful laugh. "It's nice to meet all of you!"

Vert really did facepalm at this as she tried to avoid looking at the crowd. Thankfully, no one seemed to take notice of their goddess's uncharacteristic behavior as they were too busy gaping at the smiling boy instead.

The silence seemed to stretch on for an eternity and a half before the muttering began. Vert cautiously lowered her hand as she looked over at the crowd with a nervous look. While the general tone seemed to be one of simple confusion, she knew this would not last for very long. With bated breath, she waited for one of her hardcore fanboys to angrily speak out and-

"Well, it's about damn time!"

Vert blinked at the completely unexpected feminine voice that suddenly silenced the entire crowd. As she and everyone else looked over towards the source of the shout, they found to their surprise that the speaker was actually a tough-looking middle-aged woman.

"We finally have a male CPU! Well, CPU Candidate, but no matter! Now I finally have a way to get back at my idiot husband whenever he goes on and on about how great Lady Green Heart is!"

"Dear, please..." the timid-looking man who was most likely her husband said, sweating nervously at all the attention they were getting.

"Oh don't you 'dear' me! Every time you come home from work drunk, you prattle on for hours about how beautiful and gorgeous Lady Green Heart is! Honestly, if you love her so much, why didn't you just marry her instead?!" The housewife briefly paused to turn her head towards the podium. "No offense to you, Lady Green Heart."

"None taken," Vert answered in a deadpan.

Funnily enough, this outburst seemed to trigger something in the rest of the numerous housewives as they all began to nod their heads as well and rose up in agreement.

"Yeah! Let's see how our husbands like it when _we_ start gushing about how handsome and good-looking Lord Sync looks compared to them!"

"C...Come on. I never compared you to Lady Green Heart... much..."

"Quiet you!"

While this was going on, the younger girls in the crowd looked back over at Sync with contemplating gazes.

"You know... he is rather cute-looking," one of the schoolgirls commented, her nearby friends nodding their heads in agreement as well.

Sync seemed to hear this as he looked over at the girl with a smile.

"I'm definitely not as cute-looking as you," he called out with a wink.

This caused the girl to blush heavily as her friends began squeeing in excitement at the attention.

Further away in the crowd, an enthusiastic male voice spoke up.

"Yes! We can finally have an official straight pairing between the CPUs! I can't wait to post some fanfics about this!"

"Heresy!" an outraged male voice suddenly cried out. "There's no such thing as a straight ship in Gamindustri! Yuri for life!"

No one seemed to hear this - or the various other complaints being shouted out - as the vast majority of the crowd began to cheer wildly in support of their new male CPU Candidate. The cheering became even louder when Sync began blowing out kisses towards some of the girls in the crowd causing them to go completely wild.

"Kyaa! He actually noticed me!"

"I love you Sync!"

"Marry me senpai!"

All of these declarations, mixed in with the sheer absurdity of the day's events, caused Vert's eyes to blank out into a blue screen as a large message box popped up inside her head.

 **Vert. exe has stopped working**

Without any further prompts, the CPU's transformation fizzled out as she collapsed onto the stage in a dead faint.


	23. The Player

**Ch 23: The Player**

"...and the head of the Leanbox Department of Immigration has been calling us all morning to get in contact with you."

"Lady Vert, our online servers have just been overloaded by all the fan e-mails asking for Master Sync to marry them!"

"Emergency contact from our Basilicom Defense Force! Two of the fangirls have slipped through the outer perimeter and are heading towards- wait, hold on... Uh huh... Roger. Looks like our sniper team just managed to tranquilize them. The situation is all clear."

"Lady Vert! We just got another call from the Leanbox News Network asking for a personal statement regarding these recent developments!"

"(´・ω・｀) Ran Ran just saw another one of the staff members using the inter-dimensional toaster in the kitchen despite the warning sign Ran Ran put up. Can Ran Ran get a few days off to go out and rescue him?"

It was the morning after the ceremony and Vert found herself stuck behind her office desk as she listened to the torrent of reports being rained down upon her. Well, listening being a rather subjective term as the goddess was currently lying face-down over her desk while holding a large ice pack over her still-aching head.

So far, the only piece of news that had not added to her growing headache had been finding out that none of her citizens had noticed her rather embarrassing fainting spell the other day. Ironically enough, Sync had been the only one to spare her any attention as he had discretely warped her away to her room as soon as she had collapsed. According to her workers, the boy had then wrapped up the ceremony by himself without any further incidents... minus the massive wave of fangirls that had tried to swarm him when he tried to leave. Luckily, Vert's seemingly over-excessive security detail had ended up saving the day as her numerous battalions of soldiers managed to hold back the overeager fangirls as well as creating a solid defensive perimeter around the Basilicom afterwards.

At the sound of another crowd of workers urgently rushing towards her office, Vert let out a loud groan as she reluctantly put aside her ice pack and raised her head.

"Cancel all scheduled appointments and tell everyone that I won't be available for any sort of meeting or interview today," she grumbled out to her workers, both the ones already in her office and the ones that had just entered. "As for the server issue and any other problems we may have, you have my permission to hire the appropriate specialists to deal with them."

As the crowd of workers all nodded and exited the room, she shifted her weary eyes to her soldiers and Basilicom guards. "Continue holding perimeter around the Basilicom for the next couple of days. Contact the local law enforcement and have them send over a few men to supplement our current forces if needed."

The defense force members quickly acknowledged their orders and left as well.

"(´・ω・｀) What about me, Lady Vert?" the lone Ran Ran left in the room asked.

"You can take as much time as you need to go rescue the lost staff member. Just make sure to bring him back alive, preferably with all his limbs still attached."

The Ran Ran gave a nod and was just about to leave when Vert spoke up again with a large sigh.

"Speaking of the toaster, why didn't you just remove it from the kitchen instead of putting up a warning sign?"

Ran Ran gave a slight shrug. "(´・ω・｀) Sync told Ran Ran that unplugging the toaster might cause its reactor to unstabilize and blow up the entire space-time continuum. Ran Ran thinks we'll need to call over a tech expert like Miss Nepgear to take it apart safely."

Vert let out a groan as she decided she would need to have a word with the boy about his reckless experimenting. Dropping her head onto the desk with a loud thud, she motioned for the Ran Ran to take her leave. The pig-mask-wearing girl seemed to accept this dismissal as the sound of her retreating footsteps and the office door being closed was heard a few seconds later.

"That boy is going to be the end of me," Vert muttered aloud once she was finally alone.

"Nah, you're more likely to be done in by a heart attack considering your lifestyle and eating habits."

It was a good indication of just how done with life Vert was when she could not even muster the energy to be surprised at Sync's sudden interjection.

"What do you want?" she grumbled out instead, not even bothering to raise her head to look at him.

Sync was heard giving a laugh as he seemed to plop down onto the sofa. "You're really out of it, aren't you?"

Vert's only answer was to let out a disgruntled grumble as she adjusted her ice pack.

"Anyways, I just thought I'd see how you were doing after yesterday," Sync went on, a hint of mischievousness entering his voice. "After all, unlike some people, I actually care enough to personally check up on my sibling after they faint."

Vert gave a guilty grimace at this before reluctantly lifting her head.

"I told you already. I was busy dealing with important business after the Lastation incident," she countered weakly. As she did, she noted that Sync was back in his usual outfit and was currently leaning back on the sofa with a knowing smirk.

"Bzzt. Wrong answer." The boy cleared his throat and continued on in a high-pitched voice that was most likely meant to imitate Histoire. "As an older sister, it is your responsibility to put the safety and well-being of your younger sibling above all else! The fact that you ignored your younger brother and instead locked yourself in your room to play video games is absolutely unforgivable! As punishment, you'll receive a three day lecture on how to properly behave as an older sister!"

Vert was not sure what was more unsettling: the implication that the boy thought she did not seriously care about him (which would definitely lead to a premature Game Over for her) or the frighteningly accurate imitation of what Histoire would say to her if she ever found out about this.

Seeing her nervous reaction, Sync gave another laugh.

"Ah, I'm just messing with you, sis," he waved off. "I know you actually care about me, as misguided as it might be. And you don't have to worry about me telling any of this to Histoire. While I am a tad bit curious to see her actually kill someone by scolding them, I'm not quite that eager to become the CPU of Leanbox just yet."

Vert felt there was something off about what he just said but he quickly interrupted her thoughts by clapping his hands together with a wide smile.

"Enough about that though. As mini-Nep would point out, we've had enough interrogation chapters in this office already. Instead, why don't we talk about how we're going to capitalize on all the public buzz surrounding my big debut?"

"Ugh. If you want me to head out with you for a live interview right now, you can forget it," she groaned. She paused to shift her ice pack before adding on, "And I'm certainly not going to allow you to appear on public television again without any supervision."

"Aw, come on sis. That was only-"

A loud knock suddenly came from the office door cutting Sync off.

"What is it?" Vert called out automatically.

"Um... pardon me." The door was nervously opened up by one of the younger Basilicom workers as she meekly stepped inside with a small stack of papers in one hand. "Lady Vert. These are all the forms that need to be approved by... meep!"

The worker's face immediately turned beet red as she took notice of Sync's presence.

"M... Master Sync! I... I didn't see you there!"

"Oh, don't mind me," he casually waved off with a roguish grin. "Carry on as if I'm not here."

The flustered girl barely managed a nod before quickly rushing over and dropping down the stack of papers on Vert's desk. With a hurried bow to her boss, she rushed back over towards the door. As she opened it though, she looked back over at Sync while nervously fiddling with her robe's head piece with her free hand.

"Um... Master Sync? M... My coworkers and I were thinking of throwing you a little party t... to celebrate your successful public debut. We... We didn't know what your s... schedule was though so..."

Vert's face scrunched up into a look of distaste as she stared at Sync brushing aside his bangs in an overemphasized manner.

"Tomorrow afternoon will be fine," he answered smoothly. "I'll even duct tape- er... I mean, I'll send Chika out on an errand so you won't have to worry about dealing with her." He quickly covered up for his verbal blunder by sending the worker a wink.

The poor girl seemed just about ready to faint as she gave a faint squeak and nod before hightailing it out of there.

A lengthy silence filled the room until Vert finally decided to speak up.

"What... was _that_?"

"What was what?" Sync asked with a smirk, the charismatic demeanor he had put on quickly fading away into his usual annoying attitude.

"You know what I mean," she growled out, not in the mood for his games.

Sync seemed to catch onto this as well as he skipped over his usual trolling and explained.

"I was just maintaining my public image."

" _What_ public image?"

Sync gave a sheepish laugh as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, after seeing how yesterday's event turned out, I figured I'd be able gather a lot more shares if I... um... _catered_ to the female demographic a bit more."

Vert quickly picked up what he was implying as she gave him a look dry enough to evaporate an entire ocean.

"Are you serious? Out of all the angles you could have gone with, you decided to portray yourself as some sort of... skirt-chaser?!"

"I prefer the term 'Casanova' if you don't mind," Sync countered, dramatically flicking aside his hair once more.

Vert felt her eye starting to twitch but managed to (mostly) restrain herself. "Stop doing that! And I absolutely do not approve of this! I will not have you tarnishing Leanbox's reputation by going around pretending to be some sort of womanizer!"

"Pretending? Who said anything about pretending?" Sync deftly dodged the ice pack Vert threw at him. "Kidding! Just kidding! Ahem. Besides, I wouldn't say I'm tarnishing the nation's reputation. If anything, I'd say I'm boosting it. Just check the amount of shares we have right now if you don't believe me."

Vert shot the boy a glare before reluctantly tapping into her connection with the share crystal. A moment later, she found herself letting out a gasp of surprise.

"W...What? How... How is...?"

"I checked in with our analyst team before I came here and they said our shares have gone up by eighty-five percent overnight." Sync gave a satisfied smirk as he took in her stunned expression. "Apparently, I'm a big hit with housewives and teenage girls from all over the world. Lastation in particular seems to be supporting me quite a bit, though that probably has more to do with the after-effects of Ram and Rom's brainwashing. Speaking of which, if those two call, tell them I'm... um... out inspecting one of our factories. For an entire year."

Vert failed to respond to this as she found herself completely speechless. While she had noticed the increase in shares upon waking up, she had failed to realize exactly how much the boy had actually gathered. Clearly she had underestimated just how massive the demand for a male CPU Candidate had been. With how vocal the male supporters (fanboys) of the goddesses were, it was sometimes easy to forget the large number of straight women that lived in Gamindustri as well. And judging from what was happening now, it was clear all of them were more than ecstatic about this unexpected turn of events.

 _'You know, this massive support for the boy makes it increasingly likely that he really is the CPU Candidate of Leanbox,"_ her logical side pointed out. _'If this many people were actually wishing for a male Candidate then-'_

Vert quickly slammed her head down onto the desk to shut her up.

No, there was absolutely no chance the boy was actually her real sibling. He was some sort of prince from an alternate dimension and that was what she was sticking with. Once she finally beat this ridiculous game of keeping him alive for some undetermined set of time, he would finally reveal his true identity to her and then maybe she would be rewarded with an actual younger-

"Um... sis? You still alive? Cause if you're not, I'm gonna go contact that shrine maiden from the next dimension over. I don't want your angry spirit haunting me and I saw an ad saying that exorcisms are half-off this week."

Vert simply let out a long, suffering groan as she wished she could rest in peace right then and there.

"Huh. Looks like you turned into a zombie instead. Well, that's fine too. The ad said the shrine maiden also deals with jiangshi and I'm pretty sure those are a type of zombie."

There was no response from Vert this time as she decided it was not worth the effort to rise to his bait.

"Heh heh. Alright, I'll show you some mercy for today. Anymore and you'll probably end up crashing again." There was a light thud next to her as he apparently returned her ice pack with his teleportation powers.

"In regards to my public image, don't worry about it too much," he continued. "It's just some harmless flirting. Honestly, it's practically the same thing you and the other CPUs do every year at the annual idol competition. And don't try to deny it. I've seen the recordings in the library."

Before Vert could say anything against him, his footsteps were heard approaching her before the sound of a paper being pulled from his inventory was heard.

"One thing before I go though. I was thinking of adding in a few more... options to our staff members' uniform. All I need is your signature and we can have it officially implemented by tomorrow."

Vert slowly peeked her head up to see the boy holding out an official-looking document with an oddly hesitant look on his face. With more than a fair bit of suspicion, she cautiously grabbed the paper before looking it over.

"New uniforms? What's wrong with our current- WHAT?! Maid uniforms for the female staff members?!"

" _Optional_ maid uniforms!" Sync quickly corrected, actually looking a bit flustered for once. "I'm not gonna force anyone to wear them if they don't want to! ...well, maybe asides from Chika, Noire, and mini-Nep but they're special cases."

Something sparked in Vert's memory as she suddenly realized something. "Wait, is that the reason why all those female workers were calling you 'Master'?!"

Sync gave an embarrassed cough as he looked away. "Ah... um... well... I _might_ have suggested that I prefer that title to a few people..." He slowly backed away as Vert began to visibly shake. "Oh, um... would you look at the time? Ha ha. I think Chika might be done sharpening her knives by now. I should probably head out now or I'll be late for our daily murder rendezvous. Er... see ya later sis!"

With a quick wave, he hastily beat a retreat as he teleported away.

"SYNC! COME BACK HERE YOU LITTLE-"

Vert was just about to rip apart the document in her hands and chase after him when something on the paper caught her eye. Putting her rampage on hold for a moment, she brought the document back down to take a closer look.

"...optional butler uniforms for the male staff members?"

Vert cleared her throat as she gracefully settled back down into her chair. Well... perhaps it would not hurt to at least _consider_ the boy's proposition.

* * *

"Let me go C-Sha! I'm gonna go kill that stupid man-whore!"

"Ram! Language! And where did you even learn that sort of word anyways?"

"Hmph. In one of Blanc's books. The guy in that story kept cheating on his master like a big stupid-head too."

"...I really need to have a word with Blanny about keeping her books better hidden. Anyways, why don't we forget about all that and go to your room to play some- Rom! Where do you think you're going with that katana?!"

In a darkened office of the Lowee Basilicom, the ominously shadowed figure of Blanc let out a low growl as she listened to the commotion taking place outside.

While C-Sha had convinced/guilt-tripped her into waiting a full day before confronting Vert (the fact that the Leanbox CPU had fainted onstage was a fairly good indication that she needed some time to recover), Blanc felt her patience rapidly dwindling away. Thunder-Tits, and more importantly, her idiot brother had a lot to answer for; not the least of which was making the world think he was currently engaged to both Ram and Rom. And yes, she knew that the twins were technically the ones who had made this ridiculous notion public with their brainwashing of Lastation but the boy had not done anything to stop them or made any public denials so he was firmly the one to blame (at least in her mind).

With a glower that could have melted solid steel, the avatar of Wrath reached into her inventory and pulled out her phone.

 **We need to talk. Get your ass over to my Basilicom. Bring the brat.**

Blanc briefly debated whether or not to include a death threat at the end before deciding against it. If Thunder-Tits refused to reply, then she could simply use it as an excuse to fly over herself and beat the living shit out of the blonde morons.

"Financier! Grab the net! Rom's making a break for the window!"

Assuming the twins did not fly over to castrate the boy first.

As Blanc sent her message, the chamberlain was heard giving off a panicked yell before a large explosion rocked the entire building.

...Hopefully the Basilicom would still be standing by the time her 'guests' decided to arrive.


End file.
